ISSN: 2158-7051 ==================== INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RUSSIAN STUDIES ==================== ISSUE NO. 7 ( 2018/1 ) |
THE BIOGRAPHY OF G.P. LAMSDORFF IN THE CONTEXT OF RUSSIAN MILITARY EMIGRATION IN EUROPE DURING WORLD WAR II
ANDREI TERESHCHUK*
Summary
The article is dedicated to the biography of the Count Grigori Pavlovich Lamsdorff and to his participation in the Spanish Civil War and World War II. Lamsdorff was born in Russia, but after the revolution of 1917 his family escaped to Paris. In 1936 Lamsdorff volunteered to the General Franco's army to fight against the Second Spanish Republic. After the end of the war in Spain, he returned to Paris. In 1941 Lamsdorff joined the German troops that invaded the USSR. He was an officer in various groups of Russian collaborationists during World War II. On 22 June 1943 Lamsdorff was a color bearer during the parade of German troops in Pskov. In the end of the war he obtained the rank of major of ROA. After World War II Lamsdorff lived in Spain and died in 2004. His biography was studied after the interviewing of Lamsdorff's grandchildren who are currently living in Barcelona, Spain. The article shows the Lamsdorff's life in the context of the epoch; his biography is an example of life of a Russian military emigrant in Europe during World War II.
Key Words: Lamsdorff, Russian emigration, White Russians in Spain, Russian Liberation Army, Russian collaborationism.
Introduction
The participation of Russian emigrants in the Spanish Civil War
(1936-1939) remains one of the most relevant issues in the field of modern
studies of Russian military history. The Soviet historiography centered
attention on the Soviet military aid to the Spanish Republic. After the fall of
the USSR a number of Russian historians began to study the attitude of the
White emigrants to the conflict in Spain.[1] The
most of authors consider that 72 Russian emigrants, most of them officers of
the Tsarist Army, took part in the Civil War.[2] [3]
Semenov, in his recent study, presents a list of Russians in the army of
Spanish rebels. According to his data, there were 127 Russians in Franco's
army.[4]
One of the Russians that volunteered to the nationalist
army was the Count Grigori Pavlovich Lamsdorff (in Russian: Григорий
Павлович Ламсдорф). The study of his biography is relevant not
only because of his lineage (the Lamsdorffs were one of the most prominent
noble families in the Tsarist Russia), but also because of his extraordinary
life. His biography is characteristic for Russian emigrants belonging to the
ideology of so-called “porazhentsy” (in Russian: пораженцы;
literally, “the defeaters”). They were White Russians who considered foreign
military intervention to the USSR the only way to destroy the communist regime
in the country; most of them fought against the Soviet Union in World War II on
the side of the Third Reich. The recent investigations in this field show that
the point of view of that segment of Russian emigration was prevailing among
the military emigrants[5],
although there were different attitudes toward the nazi Germany. For example,
the general A. I. Denikin, one of the leaders of the White Movement in the Russian
Civil War, considered both bolshevism and national-socialism perilous for
Russia, but expressed an idea that the British and French military intervention
against the USSR could throw down Stalin's regime and bring freedom to the
country.[6]
Lamsdorff, with his strong anti-communist
ideology, took part in the Spanish Civil War, in World War II and tried to
volunteer to the French Army to fight the Viet Cong in Indochina in the late 1940s.
He believed that struggling against the communism was admissible in every
situation.
After World War II Lamsdorff lived in Spain and
died in 2004. It was possible to contact his grandchildren who are currently
living in Barcelona, Spain. They agreed to cooperate in reconstructing the
biography of their grandfather. The interview with them became the most
relevant source in elaborating of the present article. The information
concerning Lamsdorff is analyzed in the
context of the war in Spain and World War II.
Lamsdorff's life before 1936
Lamsdorff was born in Saint-Petersburg. As it was aforementioned,
Grigori Pavlovich was a member of one of aristocratic families. His father,
Pavel Konstantinovich Lamsdorff (in Russian: Павел Константинович
Ламсдорф),
was a secretary of the Governing Senate and his great uncle, Vladimir
Nikolaevich Lamsdorff (in Russian: Владимир Николаевич
Ламсдорф),
was the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Empire in 1901-1906.[7] The
year of birth of Grigori Pavlovich remains unknown, because during his life he
falsified his papers a number of times; later, responding on his grandchildren's
questions, he always answered that he was 75 years old. Some studies indicate
1910[8] or
1913[9] as
Lamsdorff's years of birth, but probably, according to his grandchildren
opinion, he was born in 1905 or 1906.
After the revolution of 1917, the Lamsdorffs,
as many other noble families, escaped from Russia. Initially they settled in
the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. After short stay in Belgrade, they
went to Paris. The capital of France in the 1920s and the 1930s became the
center of Russian emigration. There were Russian colleges and universities in
Paris, and Grigori Pavlovich graduated a Russian school. After that he entered
one of French high schools and received an education in engineering. The Lamsdorffs,
as well as many other Russians in Paris, were short of money, and Grigori
Pavlovich being a student had to look for some extra jobs. Some time he spent
at Russian opera in Paris where he get acquainted with Yul Brynner, a young
Russian emigrant that later became a film artist and won Academy Award for Best
Actor.
The start of the Spanish Civil War in 1936
attracted attention of the Russian community in Paris. The most of right-wing emigrants
sympathized with the rebellion against the Republic.[10] The
most prominent Russian military organization in Europe, ROVS (in Russian: РОВС, Русский Обще-Воинский Союз; Russian Military Union) that unified former
members of the White Russian army, favored the rebel generals. A group of
Russian officers crossed illegally the border between France and Spain to join
Franco's army. Lamsdorff shared the opinion of the most of members of ROVS.
Therefore, he decided to go to Spain and to join the rebel army.
The Spanish Civil War
Unlike some members of ROVS, Lamsdorff didn't have contacts among the
Spanish military. Besides that, he was one of the first Russian volunteers in
the Nationalist Spain, and when he crossed the border, he was arrested by the
Spanish rebel authorities and sent back to France as a suspected Soviet spy.
Lamsdorff was not disappointed by his failure, and crossed the border once
again, swimming a mountain river together with his friend N. Zotov.[11] They
were taken into custody once again. After spending one month in Spanish jail,
they could persuade the nationalists that they were White Russians who wanted
to fight the communists. In this way they were set free and sent to the
nationalist army.
During the time spent in prison Lamsdorff
learned some Spanish, and later he could translate Soviet documents captured by
the nationalists. Beyond that he fought in Franco's army as a machine gunner.
In August-September 1937 he took part in the fighting at Belchite, Aragon. This
little town occupied an important strategic position. The republicans needed to
capture it to continue their offensive to Zaragoza, and attacked it with
superior forces. After the 2-days battle they took the town, but suffered heavy
casualties. Lamsdorff participated in the defense of Belchite. He was seriously
wounded and spent a few months in the hospital. After Belchite he didn't take
part in other big battles during the war.
Lamsdorff ended the war in one of the “requeté”
units. The “requeté” were the carlist militia groups who played an important
role in the nationalist army.[12] All
the members of the “requeté” were devote
Catholics; ideologically they were monarchists. Their ideology attracted many
of White Russians. A. P. Yaremchuk, another Russian volunteer in the “requeté”,
wrote in his diary:
The captain Ruiz told us that the carlist motto
was For God, Fatherland and King. One
of ours answered that the motto of the Imperial Russian Army was For Faith, Tsar and Motherland, i.e.,
that our ideology was the same. It was established the mutual comprehension to
the satisfaction of everybody.[13]
L.
Redondo and J. de Zavala indicated that although the White Russians were not
Catholics they admired the devotion of carlists.[14] The
carlists in return “allowed the Russians to fly the Tsarist flag on parade and
sew on their sleeves the white, blue and red colour patches of Imperial
Russia”.[15] The
parade mentioned by the Australian historian is the so-called Victory Parade
(“Desfile de la Victoria”) that took place on 3 May 1939 in Valencia. The
Russian squad of the tercio
(regiment) Doña María de Molina participated
in it as a separate unit.[16]
World War II
After the end of the Spanish Civil War some Russian volunteers preferred
to settle in Spain.[17]
Nevertheless, Grigori Pavlovich returned to France. He was imprisoned for
illegal crossing of the France-Spain border in 1936, but soon released and
enlisted to the French army. Lamsdorff took part in the campaign of 1940 and
despite the defeat of France obtained the “Croix du combattant” (The Combatant's
Cross). As he said to his grandchildren, he received this decoration for
“running less than the French themselves”.
After the German victory Lamsdorff returned to
Paris. During the occupation of France Lamsdorff's family saved a few Jews
helping them to escape from the nazis. In the meantime Lamsdorff was personally
acquainted with some German high ranking officers. The most prominent of them
was the admiral K. Dönitz (they get acquainted thanks to their wives). After
the war Lamsdorff was in contact with the SS-Obersturmbannführer O. Skorzeny,
who was an engineer by his pre-war profession (the same as Lamsdorff). Skorzeny
also lived in Spain after World War II. Nevertheless, Lamsdorff himself never
sympathized with the nazi ideology being an Orthodox Christian and monarchist
by his political views. According to his grandchildren, Grigori Pavlovich
during all his life displayed at home a portrait of the last Russian Tsar
Nicholas II. After World War II, Lamdorff said that if he had read the Hitler's
“Mein Kampf” before the war, he would have never joined the German troops
invading the USSR.
However, in 1941 he greeted the start of German
offensive against the Soviet Union. Lamsdorff went to the Eastern Front and
began to work as an interpreter. Despite the orders of Hitler, Russian units
supporting the German army appeared yet in the beginning of the war. For
example, on 24 August 1941 in Velizh (in the region of Vitebsk) it was created
the first Russian collaborationist unit – the group White Cross (Russische Angriffgruppe «Weißes Kreuz»).[18] In
March 1942 in the village Asintorf (in Russian: Осинторф),
on the territory of modern Belarus, the Germans created the Russian National People's Army (RNNA; in
Russian: РННА, Русская Национальная
Народная Армия; in German: Sonderverband “Graukopf”). The unit consisted mostly of Soviet
prisoners; the officers were White Russians. Lamsdorff was one of the officers.
The soldiers wore the Soviet uniform and badges with white-blue-red colors of
Russian Empire. Despite the great expectations of some White Russians, the RNNA
showed a low efficiency in the war. It took part in actions against the Soviet
guerilla fighters, but a high percentage of its military personnel were
deserting and returning to the Soviets. In the end of 1942, the RNNA suffered
heavy casualties in the fighting near Velikiye Luki; after that the unit was
discontinued.[19]
In 1943 Lamsdorff joined the 1st
guards battalion of the Russian
Liberation Army (ROA; in Russian: РОА, Русская
Освободительная Армия). It was formed in the beginning of 1943 and
from May 1943 located near Pskov.[20] The
operations of the unit were centered on the struggle against the guerilla
fighters in the region. An important event in the life of the battalion (and a
remarkable situation for the whole Russian emigration) was the participation of
the unit in the parade of German troops in Pskov on 22 of June 1943. The event
was dedicated to the anniversary of the “liberation of Russia of the
communism”. The 1st battalion of ROA marched on the streets of the
town with the Russian traditional white-blue-red flag. That was the first time
in more than 20 years since the old Russian flag was displayed on the streets
of a Russian town. The color bearer on the parade was Lamsdorff.[21] One
of Lamsdorff's photos bearing the flag helped him to prove to French
authorities after the war that he was not a collaborationist because he fought
under his country's color.
The 1st guards battalion of the ROA
was disbanded in November 1943. The reason was a low effectiveness of the unit's
actions in their struggle against the guerilla fighters. Sometimes the ROA
soldiers and the guerilla fighters in the region were arranging unofficial
“treaties” not to conduct operations against each other. Furthermore, the
members of the ROA often just simulated real military actions. The German command
was dissatisfied with that situation and decided to restructure the unit. All
the operations were cancelled; the officers returned to Germany and France.
Lamsdorff entered the ROA officer school in Verdun, France. Thanks to his
military experience in Spain and Russia and due to his study at Verdun, in the
end of the war he had the rank of major of the ROA.
In 1943-1945 Lamsdorff did not take part in the
warfare, but participated in the organization of the military forces of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples
of Russia (KONR; in Russian: КОНР, Комитет
Освобождения Народов
России),
formed on the initiative of the General A. A. Vlasov. In 1945 Lamsdorff was in
Denmark. In the last days of World War II he crossed the whole Germany to reach
the allied occupation zones and not to be captured by the Soviets. Finally,
Lamsdorff was arrested by the French authorities. Unlike numerous Russians who
had collaborated with the Germans during the war and later had been extradited
to the USSR, Lamsdorff avoided the extradition. He was freed from all the
charges by the French court and decided to emigrate to Spain.
After World War II
After spending 9 years in constant military enterprises, Lamsdorff
returned to peaceful life. He settled in Lerida, Catalonia. In that Catalan
town he obtained a job as an engineer, his civil profession. After World War II,
Lamsdorff tried one more time to participate in a military conflict. In the
late 40s (Lamsdorff's grandchildren could not indicate the precise year)
Grigori Pavlovich enlisted to the French army to fight communists in Indochina.
He considered as enemies the members of the independence coalition Viet Minh
with their leftist ideology. Motivated by an unabated enthusiasm to struggle
the communism in every possible situation, Lamsdorff went to Paris,
volunteered to the army, passed the
medical examination and was sent to Indochina. There he was submitted to a more
rigorous medical inspection and finally sent back to Europe. He was considered
unfit for military service (because of his age and a few wounds). Lamsdorff was
very disappointed about it, and preferred not to speak a lot about this story.
After that, Lamsdorff lived in Spain, first in
Lerida and later in Sitges, Catalonia, and Barcelona. He worked as an engineer,
also opened a hotel in Sitges. Till the death Lamsdorff never accepted the
Spanish citizenship considering himself Russian. Serious health concerns
impeded him to return to Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union; also there
were a number of bureaucratic difficulties that prevented him from obtaining
the Russian citizenship. Grigori Pavlovich Lamsdorff died in 2004 in Barcelona.
His biography is a good example of life of
White Russians who collaborated with the Germans during World War II. Their
tragedy consists in the fact that they had to make a choice between Hitler and
Stalin. The study of their biographies helps us to understand the nature of
Russian collaborationism in World War II and to expand our knowledge about the
tragedy of White Russians in exile.
[1]Two scientific works in the
USSR made a brief description of the participation of White Russians in the
Spanish Civil War; nevertheless, in both investigations the war in Spain is
shown as just an episode in a wide panorama of the White emigration (Komin, 1979;
Shkarenkov, 1986 [1981]).
[2]Telitsyn, V. L. “The Pyrenees” in fire. The
Civil War in Spain and the Soviet “volunteers”, Eksmo, Moscow, 2003.
[3]Pridantseva, M. Y. “The Russian emigration and
the Spanish war: some aspects of relationships”, The Civil War in Spain
1936-1939 and Europe (70th anniversary of the beginning). Materials
of the interuniversity scientific workshop. Belgorod, 52-70, 2006. [in Russian]
[4]Semenov, K. K. The Russian emigration and the
Civil War in Spain 1936-1939, Algoritm, Moscow, 2016, pp. 142-151.
[5]Aleksandrov, K. M. “The
Russian military emigrants in Europe in 1939-1940: Moods, reactions and
intentions”. Gumanitarnye, sotsialno-ekonomicheskie I obshestvennye nauki, 11
(1), 207-210, 2015, p. 209
[6]Aleksandrov, K. M. “The
Russian military emigrants…”, p. 207.
[7]Shilov, D. N. Public
officials of the Russian Empire. 1802-1917. Bibliographical reference book,
Dmitry Bulanin, Saint-Petersburg, 2001, p. 360.
[8]Vasiliev M. V. “The first guards battalion of
ROA”, Pskov. Nauchno-prakticheski, istoriko-kraevedcheski zhurnal, 44, 159-175,
2016, p. 171.
[9]Semenov, K. K. The Russian
emigration and the Civil War in Spain 1936-1939, Algoritm, Moscow, 2016, p.
144.
[10]Pchelinov-Obrazumov, A. A.
“The image of the Spanish Republic (1936-1939) in the print media of Russian
political exile”, Nauchnye vedomosti. Seria: Istoria, politologia, ekonomika,
informatika, 1 (144), issue 25, 44-51, 2013, p. 45
[11]Semenov indicates that the
Lamsdorff's companion in crossing the
border was the baron B. S. Ludensgausen-Wolf (Semenov, 2017: 76 ); the Russian
researcher bases this statement on Jurado´s article (Jurado, 1998). The
Lamsdorff's grandchildren told that
their grandfather swam the river together with N. Zotov.
[12]The participation of the
“requeté” in the Spanish Civil War is thoroughly studied in the book of
Aróstegui (2013).
[13]Yaremchuk-II, A. P. Russian volunteers in Spain 1936-1939, Globus, San
Francisco,
1983, p. 12
[14]Count Redondo, L. & De Zavala
J. The requeté (the tradition does not die), AHR, Barcelona, 1957, p. 405.
[15]Keene, J. Fighting for
Franco. International volunteers in Nationalist Spain during the Spanish Civil
War, 1936-1939, Hambledon Continuum, London, 2001, p. 199.
[16]Semenov, K. K. The Russian
emigration…, P. 99.
[17]Report to the direction of the
ROVS. 10 February 1940,
Aleksandrov K. M. Russian soldiers of the Wehrmacht, Eksmo, Moscow, 494-495,
2005.
[18]Aleksandrov, K. M. The
Generals and officers of the military formations of the Committee for the
Liberation of the Peoples of Russia 1943-1946, Doctoral dissertation,
Saint-Petersburg Institute of History of Russian Academy of Sciences,
Saint-Petersburg, 2015, p. 241.
[19]Vasiliev M. V. “The first
guards battalion of ROA”, p. 161.
[20]Vasiliev M. V. “The first
guards battalion of ROA”, p. 164.
[21]Vasiliev M. V. “The first
guards battalion of ROA”, p. 167.
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the Peoples of Russia 1943-1946, Doctoral dissertation, Saint-Petersburg
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Russian]
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informatika, 1 (144), issue 25, 44-51, 2013. [in Russian]
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emigration and the Spanish war: some aspects of relationships, The Civil War in
Spain 1936-1939 and Europe (70th anniversary of the beginning).
Materials of the interuniversity scientific workshop. Belgorod, 52-70, 2006.
[in Russian]
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requeté (the tradition does not die, AHR, Barcelona, 1957. [in Spanish]
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Wehrmacht, Eksmo, Moscow, 494-495, 2005.
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Russian]
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Bulanin, Saint-Petersburg, 2001.
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the White emigration, Mysl, Moscow, 1986.
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*Andrei Tereshchuk - PhD., The Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia, Saint-Petersburg, Russia email: san_petersburgo@inbox.ru , atereschuk@herzen.spb.ru
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