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131-1014: It was originally known as the XIV SS Cossack Cavalry Corps from September 1944 to February 1945. During the Russian Civil War (1917–1923), Cossack leaders and their governments generally sided with the White movement . After the Soviets emerged victorious in the civil war, a policy of de-Cossackisation was instituted between 1919 and 1933, aimed at the elimination of the Cossacks as a separate cultural and political group. Cossacks in exile joined other Russian émigré groups in Central and Western Europe , while those in Russia endured continual repression. In October 1942,

262-684: A 36-hour embargo against reporting the capitulation. As it became clear that there would need to be a definitive second signing before the Act of Surrender could become operative, Eisenhower agreed that the news blackout should remain; however, the American journalist Edward Kennedy of the Associated Press news agency in Paris broke the embargo on 7 May, with the consequence that the German surrender

393-773: A Tsarist official in Kiev. I spent 11 years at hard labour. After the Revolution, I was freed. I favoured the Constituent Assembly and am still for it. Kaplan referenced the Bolsheviks' growing authoritarianism, citing their forcible shutdown of the Constituent Assembly in January 1918, the elections to which they had lost. When it became clear that Kaplan would not implicate any accomplices, she

524-678: A brief preamble: "The German Government and German High Command, recognizing and acknowledging the complete defeat of the German armed forces on land, at sea and in the air, hereby announce Germany's unconditional surrender". The second part, articles 1–5, related to the military surrender by the German High Command of all forces on land, at sea, and in the air, to the surrender of their weapons, to their evacuation from any territory outside German boundaries as they stood on 31 December 1937, and to their liability to captivity as prisoners of war. The third part, articles 6 to 12, related to

655-619: A clarificatory statement that any German forces continuing to fight against the Soviets after the stated deadline would "no longer have the status of soldiers"; and hence, if they were to surrender to the Americans or British, would then be handed back into Soviet captivity. The effect of the Reims signing was limited to a consolidation of the effective ceasefire between German forces and the Western Allies. Fighting continued unabated in

786-769: A common surrender broadly held; and units seeking to defy it were denied passage west, perforce having to surrender to the Soviets. The exception was Army Group E in Croatia, which fought on for several days attempting to force an escape from the partisan forces of Marshal Tito , such that many soldiers from these units did succeed in surrendering to General Alexander in Italy. These included considerable numbers of Ustase collaboration troops, who were subsequently returned to Yugoslavia; and who were all promptly executed without trial. The Reims signing ceremony had been attended by considerable numbers of reporters, all of whom were bound by

917-406: A full and detailed armistice; or a shorter armistice conferring general powers; or possibly no armistice at all, but a series of local capitulations by enemy commanders. The surrender terms for Germany were initially discussed at the first EAC meeting on 14 January 1944. A definitive three-part text was agreed upon on 28 July 1944 and adopted by the three Allied Powers. The first part consisted of

1048-522: A general surrender of all German forces simultaneously to all the Allied powers, including the Soviets. Following these surrenders, the major remaining German forces in the field consisted of Army Group E facing Yugoslav forces in Croatia, the remains of Army Group Vistula facing Soviet forces in Mecklenburg, and Army Group Centre facing Soviet forces in eastern Bohemia and Moravia, engaging in

1179-533: A general surrender order from the German High Command i.e. OKW. After these partial surrenders (and the signing in Reims) Germany signed its final document to surrender to the Allied side in Berlin. Dönitz's representative, Admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg , informed him on 6 May that Eisenhower was now insisting on "immediate, simultaneous and unconditional surrender on all fronts." General Alfred Jodl

1310-496: A nominated protecting power (usually Switzerland or Sweden) under the terms of the Geneva Conventions ; with counterpart arrangements for the former embassies of Allied countries in Berlin. The United States State Department had prepared for the diplomatic consequences of the war's ending on the assumption that there would have been an explicit statement of unconditional surrender of the German state in accordance with

1441-659: A number of vacant seats in the Soviets and Central Executive for the Menshevik and Left Socialist Revolutionaries parties in proportion to their vote share at the Congress. The dissolution of the Constituent Assembly was also approved by the Left Socialist Revolutionaries and anarchists , both groups were in favour of a more radical democracy . From mid-1917 onwards, the Russian Army ,

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1572-509: A region occupied by the foreigners at the time. The Empire of Japan , a remaining Axis belligerent, has already denounced the German decision about the surrender and unilaterally seized all German properties in Japan. Nevertheless, as the surrender instrument of 8 May 1945 had been signed only by German military representatives, the full civil provisions for the unconditional surrender of Germany remained without explicit formal basis. Consequently,

1703-814: A result of the Polish–Soviet War ), Armenia , Azerbaijan and Georgia were occupied by the Red Army. By 1921, Soviet Russia had defeated the Ukrainian national movements and occupied the Caucasus , although anti-Bolshevik uprisings in Central Asia lasted until the late 1920s. The armies under Kolchak were eventually forced on a mass retreat eastward . Bolshevik forces advanced east, despite encountering resistance in Chita , Yakut and Mongolia . Soon

1834-535: A second Cossack division and proposed the transfer of the 1st Cossack Division to the SS. All units were to be placed under Pannwitz's command. Though initially reluctant, Pannwitz eventually agreed to place his division under SS administration. Both German cadre and Cossack troops would retain their traditional uniforms and their Wehrmacht or Cossack rank. Pannwitz hoped to raise his unit's low morale and to receive more supplies and better equipment. The Cossacks did not wear

1965-635: A strong imprint on the specifics of the Civil War. During the Russian Civil War, the White movement functioned as a big tent political movement representing an array of political opinions in Russia united in their opposition to the Bolsheviks—from the republican-minded liberals and Kerenskyite social-democrats on the left through monarchists and supporters of a united multinational Russia to

2096-707: A surge in support for the Bolsheviks , who took control of the soviets , which until then had been controlled by the Socialist Revolutionaries. Promising an end to the war and "all power to the Soviets", the Bolsheviks then ended dual power by overthrowing the Provisional Government in late October, on the eve of the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies , in what would be

2227-553: Is the surrender of German troops, giving themselves up as prisoners". Eisenhower immediately agreed, acknowledging that the act of surrender signed in Reims should be considered "a brief instrument of unconditional military surrender", and undertook to attend with correctly accredited representatives of the German High Command for a "more formal signing" of a suitably amended text presided over by Marshal Georgy Zhukov in Berlin (capital of Nazi Germany) on 8 May. Furthermore, he issued

2358-609: The Allied Governments recognized the acting Flensburg Government as validly exercising civil power, and consequently the Allies had insisted that the German signatories should explicitly represent the German High Command alone. On 23 May 1945, in Flensburg , a group of former Nazi members, including Karl Dönitz, were taken into captivity as prisoners of war, and Admiral Friedeburg committed suicide. Pursuant to Article 4 of

2489-836: The Armistice of 11 November 1918 had been signed only by civilians, the High Command of the Army carried no responsibility for the instrument of defeat or for the defeat itself. Not everyone agreed with the committee's predictions. Ambassador William Strang, 1st Baron Strang , the British representative at the EAC, claimed: It is impossible at present to foresee in what circumstances hostilities with Germany may be suspended. We cannot tell, therefore, what mode of procedure would be most suitable; whether, for example, it will be found best to have

2620-638: The Central Powers also intervened, rivaling the Allied intervention with the main goal of retaining the territory they had received in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Soviet Russia. The Bolsheviks initially consolidated control over most of the former empire. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was an emergency peace with the German Empire , who had captured vast swathes of the Russian territory during

2751-683: The Combined Chiefs of Staff of the Western Allies agreed in August 1944 to general guidelines for the terms of local military surrenders to be concluded with any capitulating German forces. They mandated that capitulation had to be unconditional and restricted to the purely military aspects of a local surrender and that no commitments were to be given to the enemy. That surrender was to be without prejudice to any subsequent general instrument of surrender which might replace any document of partial surrender and which would be jointly imposed on Germany by

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2882-537: The Council of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom) decided to liquidate criminal recklessness associated with anarchists and disarm all anarchist groups in the face of their militancy. From early 1918, the Bolsheviks started physical elimination of opposition, other socialist and revolutionary fractions. Anarchists were among the first: Of all the revolutionary elements in Russia it is the Anarchists who now suffer

3013-841: The Czechoslovak Legions overthrew Bolshevik rule in Siberia , the Urals and the Volga region in late May-early June 1918 and the center of SR activity shifted there. On June 8, 1918, five Constituent Assembly members formed the All-Russian Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly ( Komuch ) in Samara and declared it the new supreme authority in the country. The Social Revolutionary Provisional Government of Autonomous Siberia came to power on 29 June 1918, after

3144-606: The SS became interested in gaining control of the 1st Cossack Division under Helmuth von Pannwitz . In July 1944 Himmler discussed the organisation of a Cossack fighting unit in the Białystok region and requested from Adolf Hitler , that the Cossack Division would be placed in the organisational structure of the SS. On 26 August 1944 he met with Pannwitz and his chief of staff. Himmler planned to gather all Cossack units to form

3275-692: The Soviet Union in most of its territory. Its finale marked the end of the Russian Revolution , which was one of the key events of the 20th century . The Russian monarchy ended with the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II during the February Revolution , and Russia was in a state of political flux. A tense summer culminated in the October Revolution , where the Bolsheviks overthrew the provisional government of

3406-738: The Ukrainian anarchists of the Makhnovshchina and Left Socialist-Revolutionaries , were involved in conflict against the Bolsheviks. They, as well as non-ideological green armies , opposed the Bolsheviks, the Whites and the foreign interventionists. Thirteen foreign nations intervened against the Red Army, notably the Allied intervention , whose primary goal was re-establishing the Eastern Front of World War I . Three foreign nations of

3537-606: The Volunteer Army began amassing support. The signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk also resulted in direct Allied intervention in Russia and the arming of military forces opposed to the Bolshevik government. There were also many German commanders who offered support against the Bolsheviks, fearing a confrontation with them was impending as well. German Instrument of Surrender The German Instrument of Surrender

3668-790: The Volunteer Depot Division on the same day the takeover of the Cossack units by the Waffen-SS was complete. According to Samuel J. Newland, the corps, composed of the 1st and 2nd Cavalry Brigades and the 1st and 2nd Division, was actually formed on 25 February 1945, when it was officially created by the High Command. The corps was initially subordinated to Army Group F in Croatia , and since March 1945 to Army Group E in Croatia. During their time there, they were known by

3799-574: The Bolshevik Party who had peacefully stood down from the Soviet when they failed to win the elections. As a result, the Bolsheviks banned each opposition party when it turned against the Soviet government. In some cases, bans were lifted. This banning of parties did not have the same repressive character as later bans enforced under the Stalinist regime. In December 1917, Felix Dzerzhinsky

3930-608: The Bolshevik police. The Union of Regeneration was founded in Moscow in April 1918 as an underground agency organizing democratic resistance to the Bolshevik dictatorship, composed of the Popular Socialists, Right Socialist Revolutionaries, and Defensists, among others. They were tasked with propping up anti-Bolshevik forces and to create a Russian state system based on civil liberties, patriotism, and state-consciousness with

4061-654: The Bolsheviks: in the Voronezh Oblast, the Red Guards killed sixteen peasants during the pacification of the village, while another village was shelled with artillery in order to force the peasants to surrender and in the Novgorod Oblast the rebelling peasants were dispersed with machine-gun fire from a train sent by a detachment of Latvian Red Army soldiers. While the Bolsheviks immediately denounced

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4192-434: The British and Americans. In addition, Dönitz hoped to continue to evacuate soldiers and civilians by sea from the Hela peninsula and the surrounding Baltic coastal areas. Dönitz and Keitel were resolved against issuing any orders to surrender to Soviet forces, not only from undiminished anti-Bolshevism, but also because they could not be confident they would be obeyed, and might consequently place troops continuing to fight in

4323-423: The British, while the last divisional elements reached the British zone on 13 May 1945. Though the division had fought westwards to surrender to the western Allies, the British later surrendered all Cossack units to the Red Army. Several thousand were killed in a mass execution near Lienz , Austria, while the commanding officers, including Pannwitz, were put on trial and executed in 1947. Gravestones near Lienz mark

4454-405: The British. According to one source, Pannwitz felt that the West would have great use for the corps as an anti-Bolshevik formation. The 2nd Division covered the withdrawal of the 1st Division against partisan forces. Unaffected by the German surrender on 8 May and partisan demands to surrender, the Cossack units continued fighting on their way to the British zone . On 10 May Pannwitz surrendered to

4585-417: The Caserta capitulation had arisen from within the local German military command; but from 2 May 1945, the Dönitz government assumed control of the process, pursuing a deliberate policy of successive partial capitulations in the west to play for time in order to bring as many as possible of the eastern military formations westwards so as to save them from Soviet or Yugoslav captivity, and surrender them intact to

4716-402: The Civil War (1917–1922), During interrogation by the Cheka , she made the following statement: My name is Fanya Kaplan. Today I shot Lenin. I did it on my own. I will not say from whom I obtained my revolver. I will give no details. I had resolved to kill Lenin long ago. I consider him a traitor to the Revolution. I was exiled to Akatui for participating in an assassination attempt against

4847-406: The Danish border. He was joined there on 2 May 1945 by the " Oberkommando der Wehrmacht " (OKW) (English: "High Command of the Armed Forces") under Wilhelm Keitel , which had previously relocated to Krampnitz near Potsdam , and then to Rheinsberg during the Battle of Berlin . Dönitz sought to present his government as 'unpolitical.’ However, there was no repudiation of Nazism, the Nazi Party

4978-411: The EAC proposed: that the capitulation of Germany should be recorded in a single document of unconditional surrender. The committee further suggested that the instrument of surrender be signed by representatives of the German High Command. The considerations behind this recommendation were to prevent the repetition of the so-called stab-in-the-back myth , where extremists in Germany claimed that since

5109-433: The EAC text for Unconditional Surrender of Germany, redrafted as a declaration and with an extended explanatory preamble, was adopted unilaterally by the now four Allied Powers as the Declaration regarding the defeat of Germany . This spelled out the Allied position that as a result of its complete defeat Germany had no government or central authority (the Allies did not recognize the rump Nazi Flensburg Government ) and that

5240-414: The Elbe, the area of Germany still under German military control was split in two. Moreover, the speed of the final Allied advances of March 1945, together with Hitler's insistent orders to stand and fight to the last, left the bulk of surviving German forces in isolated pockets and occupied territories mostly outside the boundaries of pre-Nazi Germany. Dönitz attempted to form a government at Flensburg on

5371-496: The English and Russian versions proclaimed in the document itself as the only authoritative ones. On 30 April 1945, the head of state of Germany Adolf Hitler committed suicide inside his Führerbunker under the Reich Chancellery , after drawing up a testament in which Admiral Karl Dönitz succeeded him as next head of state of Germany, with the title of Reichspräsident . With the fall of Berlin two days later, and American and Soviet forces having linked up at Torgau on

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5502-400: The German " Oberkommando der Wehrmacht " (OKW), the Allied Expeditionary Force represented by the British, and the Supreme High Command of the Soviet Red Army , with further French and American representatives signing as the witnesses. This time, Field-Marshal Wilhelm Keitel was the highest representative of Germany at the signing ceremony. This surrender document of Germany also led to

5633-409: The German armed services would attend a formal ratification of the act of surrender at a time and place designated by the Allied High Commands. UNDERTAKING GIVEN BY CERTAIN GERMAN EMISSARIES TO THE ALLIED HIGH COMMANDS It is agreed by the German emissaries undersigned that the following German officers will arrive at a place and time designated by the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force, and

5764-427: The Germans established a semi-autonomous Cossack District in the Kuban . This put them in a position to recruit Cossacks from these areas and mobilise them against the Red Army . This was in contrast to soldiers of the ROA , who had been recruited from POW camps and Red Army defectors, most soldiers of the German Cossack units had never been citizens of the Soviet Union . In the summer of 1944, Heinrich Himmler and

5895-512: The Greek islands of Crete , Rhodes and the Dodecanese ; most of Norway; Denmark; the northwestern Netherlands; northern Croatia; northern Italy; Austria; Bohemia and Moravia ; the Courland peninsula in Latvia; the Hel Peninsula in Poland and in Germany towards Hamburg , facing British and Canadian forces; in Mecklenburg , Pomerania and the besieged city of Breslau , facing Soviet forces; and in southern Bavaria towards Berchtesgaden , facing American and French forces. Representatives of

6026-435: The Instrument of Surrender, the Berlin Declaration on 5 June 1945 confirmed the Nazi defeat and Nazi de facto fall as well as established the Allied occupation of Germany. During 1944 and 1945; formerly neutral countries and former German allies had been joining the Allies and declaring war on Germany, an Axis country. The German embassies to the countries had been closed down, with their property and archives held in trust by

6157-420: The July 1944 surrender text. It stated that the Allied representatives "will take such steps, including the complete disarmament, demilitarization and dismemberment of Germany as they deem requisite for future peace and security." The Provisional Government of the French Republic , however, was not a party to the Yalta agreement and refused to recognize it, which created a diplomatic problem as formal inclusion of

6288-424: The Red Army split the Don and Volunteer armies , forcing evacuations in Novorossiysk in March and Crimea in November 1920. After that, fighting was sporadic until the war ended with the capture of Vladivostok in October 1922, but anti-Bolshevik resistance continued with the Muslim Basmachi movement in Central Asia and Khabarovsk Krai until 1934. There were an estimated 7 to 12 million casualties during

6419-573: The Reims signing principally in respect of requiring three German signatories, who could fully represent all three armed services together with the German High Command. Otherwise the amended text set out an expanded article 2, now requiring German forces to disarm and hand over their weapons to local allied commanders. This clause had the effect of ensuring that German military forces would not only cease military operations against regular allied forces; but would also disarm themselves, disband, and be taken into captivity. Field Marshal Keitel initially balked at

6550-410: The Reims signing, a response was received from the Soviet High Command stating that the Act of Surrender was unacceptable, both because the text differed from that agreed by the EAC, and because Susloparov had not been empowered to sign. These objections were, however, pretexts; the substantive Soviet objection was that the act of surrender ought to be a unique, singular, historical event fully reflecting

6681-447: The Reims signing, which they did not recognize; Soviet Union celebrated " Victory Day " on 9 May 1945 because this document was signed when time was 9 May in Soviet Union. Today, both 8 May and 9 May are considered the end of World War II in Europe to celebrate due to time zone difference. Although the German military signatories of the German Instrument of Surrender had been officially acting under instructions from Admiral Dönitz, none of

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6812-419: The Reims surrender text were accepted without difficulty by the Western Allies; but the identification and designation of the Allied signatories proved more problematic. French forces operated under SHAEF command, but General de Gaulle was demanding that General de Tassigny sign separately for the French High Command; but in that case it would be politically unacceptable for there to be no American signature on

6943-431: The Republic: Great plan! Finish it with Dzerzhinsky. While pretending to be the "greens" (we will blame them later), we will advance by 10–20 miles (versts) and hang kulaks, priests, landowners. Prize: 100.000 rubles for each hanged man. Leonid Kannegisser , a young military cadet of the Imperial Russian Army , assassinated Moisey Uritsky on August 17, 1918, outside the Petrograd Cheka headquarters in retaliation for

7074-452: The SHAEF headquarters. It was to take effect at 23:01 CET (one minute after 11:00 pm, British Double Summer Time ) on 8 May, the 48-hour grace period having been back-dated to the start of final negotiations. The unconditional surrender of the German armed forces was signed by Jodl, on behalf of the OKW. Walter Bedell Smith signed on behalf of the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force and General Ivan Susloparov on behalf of

7205-417: The SR Nikolai Avksentiev and some followers were arrested for organizing a conspiracy. This was the first time Bolsheviks used this kind of repression against a socialist party. Izvestia said the arrest was not related to his membership in the Constituent Assembly. On January 4, 1918, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee made a resolution saying the slogan "all power to the constituent assembly"

7336-407: The SS runes or receive any ideological indoctrination. In September 1944, the XIV SS Cossack Cavalry Corps was established on the basis of the 1st Cossack Division. The Cossacks fought an engagement against the Red Army on 25 December 1944 near Pitomača to prevent them from crossing the Drava River . The commander of the 5th Don Cossack Cavalry Regiment was awarded the Iron Cross, 1st Class after

7467-438: The Soviet High Command prepared, with plenary powers, to execute a formal ratification on behalf of the German High Command of this act of Unconditional Surrender of the German armed forces. Chief of the High Command; Commander-in-Chief of the Army; Commander-in-Chief of the Navy; Commander-in-Chief of the Air Forces. SIGNED JODL Representing the German High Command. DATED 0241 7 May 1945 Rheims, France Some six hours after

7598-435: The Soviet High Command. French Major-General François Sevez signed as the official witness. Eisenhower had proceeded throughout in consultation with General Aleksei Antonov of the Soviet High Command; and at his request, General Susloparov had been seconded to the SHAEF Headquarters to represent the Soviet High Command in the surrender negotiations. The text of the act of surrender had been telegraphed to General Antonov in

7729-415: The Soviet Union, the United States, and the United Kingdom working through the European Advisory Commission (EAC) throughout 1944 sought to prepare an agreed surrender document to be used in the potential circumstances of Nazi power being overthrown within Germany either by military or civil authorities, and a post-Nazi government then seeking an armistice. By 3 January 1944, the Working Security Committee in

7860-406: The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and opposed Trotsky's insistence that no one try to attack German troops in Ukraine. According to historian Marcel Liebman , Lenin's wartime measures such as banning opposition parties was prompted by the fact that several political parties either took up arms against the new Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic , or participated in sabotage, collaboration with

7991-413: The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk: the United Baltic Duchy , Duchy of Courland and Semigallia , Kingdom of Lithuania , Kingdom of Poland , the Belarusian People's Republic , and the Ukrainian State . Following Germany's Armistice in World War I in November 1918, the states were abolished. Finland was the first republic that declared its independence from Russia in December 1917 and established itself in

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8122-423: The Western Allies; "The struggle in the west however is over. But there can be no question of surrender to the Bolsheviks." Consequently, Eisenhower arranged for the commanders in chief of each of the three German armed services to be flown from Flensburg to Berlin early on 8 May; where they were kept waiting through the day until 10:00 pm when the Allied delegation arrived, at which point the amended surrender text

8253-423: The White Guard (Бѣлая гвардія / Белая гвардия, Belaya gvardiya ) or White Guardsmen (Бѣлогвардейцы / Белогвардейцы, Belogvardeytsi ). When the White Army was created, the structure of the Russian Army of the Provisional Government period was used, while almost every individual formation had its own characteristics. The military art of the White Army was based on the experience of World War I, which, however, left

8384-458: The additional clause in the EAC text would inevitably create a French demand for equal representation in any dismemberment decisions. While this was unresolved, there were in effect two versions of the EAC text, one with the "dismemberment clause" and one without. By the end of March 1945, the British government began to doubt whether, once Germany had been completely overpowered, there would be any post-Nazi German civil authority capable of signing

8515-478: The agreed EAC surrender text. In the final days of April 1945, the State Department had notified the protecting powers, and all other remaining neutral governments (such as Ireland), that following the forthcoming German surrender, the continued identity of the German state would rest solely in the four Allied Powers, who would immediately recall all German diplomatic staff, take ownership of all German state property, extinguish all protecting power functions, and require

8646-545: The amended text, proposing that an additional grace period of 12 hours be granted to surrendering German forces, before they might be exposed to punitive action for non-compliance under article 5. In the event, he had to be satisfied with a verbal assurance from Zhukov. Admiral Friedeburg was the only representative of the German forces to be present at the signing of the German instruments of surrender at Luneburg Heath on 4 May 1945, in Reims on 7 May and in Berlin on 8 May 1945. ACT OF MILITARY SURRENDER Representatives: For

8777-433: The battle. In November 1944 the 1st Cossack Division was taken over by the Waffen-SS . The SS Führungshauptamt reorganised the division and used further Cossack combat units from the army and the Ordnungspolizei to form a 2nd Cossack Cavalry Division . Both divisions were placed under the command of the XV SS Cossack Cavalry Corps on 1 February 1945. With the transfer of the 5th Volunteer Cossack Depot Regiment from

8908-404: The bloodthirsty kulaks and that we will continue to do so ... Yours, Lenin. P.S. Find tougher people. In a mid-August 1920 letter, having received information that in Estonia and Latvia, with which Soviet Russia had concluded peace treaties, volunteers were being enrolled in anti-Bolshevik detachments, Lenin wrote to E. M. Sklyansky, deputy chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of

9039-431: The brutal suppression of the Prague uprising . An occupying army of around 400,000 well-equipped German troops remained in Norway, under the command of General Franz Böhme , who was contacted by the German Minister in Sweden early on 6 May, to determine whether a further partial capitulation might be arranged for his forces with neutral Sweden acting as an intermediary, but was unwilling to comply with anything other than

9170-478: The capitulation; but once Hitler's death had been confirmed, acceded to it. On 4 May 1945, German forces acting under instruction from the Dönitz Government and facing the British and Canadian 21st Army Group , signed an act of surrender at Lüneburg Heath to come into effect on 5 May. On 5 May 1945, all German forces in Bavaria and Southwest Germany signed an act of surrender to the Americans at Haar , outside Munich; coming into effect on 6 May. The impetus for

9301-553: The change are disputed but may have reflected awareness of the reservations being expressed as to the capability of the German signatories to agree the provisions of the full text or the continued uncertainty over communicating the "dismemberment clause" to the French. German military commanders in Italy had been conducting secret negotiations for a partial surrender; which was signed at Caserta on 29 April 1945, to come into effect on 2 May. Field Marshal Albert Kesselring , with overall military command for OKW-South, initially denounced

9432-701: The chaos of the revolution. In May 1918, the Czechoslovak Legion in Russia revolted in Siberia. In reaction, the Allies began their North Russian and Siberian interventions . That, combined with the creation of the Provisional All-Russian Government , saw the reduction of Bolshevik-controlled territory to most of European Russia and parts of Central Asia . In 1919, the White Army launched several offensives from

9563-427: The complete defeat of Germany". The key article in the third section was article 12, which provided that the German government and German High Command would comply fully with any proclamations, orders, ordinances, and instructions of the accredited Allied representatives. The Allies understood this as allowing unlimited scope to impose arrangements for the restitution and reparation of damages. Articles 13 and 14 specified

9694-467: The country as a one-party state with all opposition parties outlawed. A simultaneous demonstration in favor of the Constituent Assembly was dispersed with force, but there was little protest afterwards. The first large Cheka repression involving the killing of libertarian socialists in Petrograd began in April 1918. On May 1, 1918, a pitched battle took place in Moscow between the anarchists and

9825-539: The country, leading to a situation of dual power . The Russian Republic was proclaimed in September of the same year. The Provisional Government, led by Socialist Revolutionary Party politician Alexander Kerensky , was unable to solve the most pressing issues of the country, most importantly to end the war with the Central Powers. A failed military coup by General Lavr Kornilov in September 1917 led to

9956-590: The date of surrender and the languages of the definitive texts. The Yalta Conference in February 1945 had led to further development of the terms of surrender, as it was agreed that the administration of post-war Germany would be split into four occupation zones for the Soviet Union, Britain, France, and the United States. It was also agreed at Yalta that an additional clause "12a," would be added to

10087-591: The de facto fall of Nazi Germany. As one result of Nazi German downfall, the Allies had de facto occupied Germany since the German defeat – which was later confirmed via the Berlin Declaration by the four countries of Allies as the common representative of new Germany (France, USSR, UK and the US), on 5 June 1945. There were three language versions of the surrender document – English , Russian , and German  – with

10218-434: The definitive surrender document, while the Soviets would not agree to there being more than three Allied signatories in total – one of whom would have to be Zhukov. After repeated redrafts, all of which needed translating and retyping, it was finally agreed that both French and American signatures would be as witnesses. But the consequence was that the final versions were not ready for signing until after midnight. Consequently,

10349-592: The deposed Tsarists, or made assassination attempts against Lenin and other Bolshevik leaders. Liebman noted that opposition parties such as the Cadets and Mensheviks who were democratically elected to the Soviets in some areas, then proceeded to use their mandate to welcome in Tsarist and foreign capitalist military forces . In one incident in Baku , the British military, once invited in, proceeded to execute members of

10480-637: The disarray to push for national independence. In March 1921, during a related war against Poland , the Peace of Riga was signed, splitting disputed territories in Belarus and Ukraine between the Republic of Poland and Soviet Russia. Soviet Russia sought to re-conquer all newly independent nations of the former empire, although their success was limited. Estonia , Finland , Latvia , and Lithuania all repelled Soviet invasions, while Ukraine , Belarus (as

10611-477: The early hours of 7 May, but no confirmation of Soviet approval had been received by the time of the surrender ceremony, nor was there confirmation that General Susloparov was empowered to sign as representing the Soviet High Command. Accordingly, Eisenhower agreed with Susloparov that a separate text should be signed by the German emissaries; undertaking that fully empowered representatives of each of

10742-758: The east in March, the south in July, and west in October. The advances were later checked by the Eastern Front counteroffensive , the Southern Front counteroffensive , and the defeat of the Northwestern Army . By 1919, the White armies were in retreat and by the start of 1920 were defeated on all three fronts. Although the Bolsheviks were victorious, the territorial extent of the Russian state had been reduced, for many non-Russian ethnic groups had used

10873-557: The east however, especially as German forces now intensified their air and ground assault against the Prague uprising, while the seaborne evacuation of German troops across the Baltic continued. Dönitz issued new commands that resistance to Soviet forces should be maintained, taking advantage of the 48-hour grace period to order redoubled efforts to save German military units from Soviet captivity; and it soon became clear that he had authorized

11004-769: The east were ordered instead to fight their way westwards. Conscious that, if this were to continue, the Soviet Command would suspect that the Western allies were intending a separate peace (as indeed was exactly Dönitz's intention), Eisenhower determined that no further partial surrenders would be agreed in the West; but instead instructed the Dönitz government to send representatives to Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) headquarters in Reims , to agree terms for

11135-536: The elections with the majority of the seats, after which Lenin's Theses on the Constituent Assembly argued in Pravda that formal democracy was impossible because of class conflicts, conflicts with Ukraine and the Kadet-Kaledin uprising. He argued the Constituent Assembly must unconditionally accept sovereignty of the soviet government or it would be dealt with "by revolutionary means". On December 30, 1917,

11266-656: The ensuing Finnish Civil War between pro-independence White Guards and pro-Russian Bolshevik Red Guards from January–May 1918. The Second Polish Republic , Lithuania , Latvia and Estonia formed their own armies immediately after the abolition of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty and the start of the Soviet westward offensive and subsequent Polish-Soviet War in November 1918. In the European part of Russia

11397-766: The events that would officially catalyze the Red Terror , Vladimir Lenin had sent telegrams "to introduce mass terror" in Nizhny Novgorod in response to a suspected civilian uprising there, and to "crush" landowners in Penza who resisted, sometimes violently, the requisitioning of their grain by military detachments: Comrades! The kulak uprising in your five districts must be crushed without pity ... You must make example of these people. Do all this so that for miles (versts) around people see it all, understand it, tremble, and tell themselves that we are killing

11528-523: The execution of his friend and other officers. On August 30, the SR Fanny Kaplan unsuccessfully attempted to assassinate Lenin, who sought to eliminate political dissent, opposition, and any other threat to Bolshevik power. As a result of the failed attempt on Lenin's life, he began to crack down on his political enemies in an event known as the Red Terror . More broadly, the term is usually applied to Bolshevik political repression throughout

11659-795: The goal to liberate the country from the "Germano-Bolshevik" yoke. On May 7, 1918, the Eighth Party Council of the Socialist Revolutionary Party commenced in Moscow and recognized the Union's leading role, putting aside political ideology and class for the purpose of Russia's salvation. They decided to start an uprising against the Bolsheviks with the goal of reconvening the Russian Constituent Assembly. While preparations were under way,

11790-465: The government to heed Dzerzhinsky's lobbying for greater terror against opposition. The campaign of mass repressions would officially begin thereafter. The Red Terror is considered to have officially begun between 17 and 30 August 1918. Protests against grain requisitioning of the peasantry were a major component of the Tambov Rebellion and similar uprisings; Lenin's New Economic Policy

11921-615: The instrument of surrender or of putting its provisions into effect. They proposed that the EAC text should be redrafted as a unilateral declaration of German defeat by the Allied Powers, and of their assumption of supreme authority following the total dissolution of the German state. It was in this form that the text agreed by the EAC was finally effected as the Declaration Regarding the Defeat of Germany . Meanwhile,

12052-503: The instrument of unconditional surrender, but subject to negotiating a 48-hour delay, ostensibly to enable the surrender order to be communicated to outlying German military units. Consequently, the first Instrument of Surrender was signed in Reims at 02:41 Central European Time (CET) on 7 May 1945. The signing took place in a red brick schoolhouse, the Collège Moderne et Technique de Reims  [ fr ] , that served as

12183-557: The leading contribution of the Soviet people to the final victory. They maintained that it should not be held on liberated territory that had been victimized by German aggression, but at the seat of government from where that German aggression sprang: Berlin. Furthermore, the Soviets pointed out that, although the terms of the surrender signed in Reims required German forces to cease all military activities and remain in their current positions; they were not explicitly required to lay down their arms and give themselves up, "what has to happen here

12314-581: The locals as Čerkezi (" Circassians "), despite the corps' Cossack ethnic makeup. The corps supported the German offensive Operation Spring Awakening in Hungary by launching an offensive against a Soviet bridgehead at Valpovo on the Drava. During April the corps was engaged in minor actions and then began to withdraw from Yugoslavia on 3 May 1945. Senior officers had concluded that the corps should fight their way back to Austria in order to be captured by

12445-562: The location of the mass graves. Russian Civil War [REDACTED] White movement The Russian Civil War was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the overthrowing of the liberal-democratic Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution , as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. It resulted in the formation of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and later

12576-577: The most part, the Berlin signing did the job required of it; with German forces in Courland and the Atlantic outposts all surrendering on 9 May within the informal 12-hour grace period. German surrender to the Soviets in Bohemia and Moravia took rather longer to achieve, with some German forces in Bohemia continuing to attempt to fight their way towards the American lines. Nevertheless, the principle of

12707-706: The most ruthless and systematic persecution. Their suppression by the Bolsheviki began already in 1918, when — in the month of April of that year — the Communist Government attacked, without provocation or warning, the Anarchist Club of Moscow and by the use of machine guns and artillery "liquidated" the whole organisation. It was the beginning of Anarchist hounding, but it was sporadic in character, breaking out now and then, quite planless, and frequently self-contradictory. On 11 August 1918, prior to

12838-592: The new Russian Republic . Bolshevik seizure of power was not universally accepted, and the country descended into civil war. The two largest combatants were the Red Army , fighting for the establishment of a Bolshevik-led socialist state headed by Vladimir Lenin , and the loosely allied forces known as the White Army , which functioned as a political big tent for right - and left-wing opposition to Bolshevik rule. In addition, rival militant socialists, notably

12969-477: The physical signing was delayed until nearly 01:00 am on 9 May, Central European Time; and then back-dated to 8 May to be consistent with the Reims agreement and the public announcements of the surrender already made by Western leaders. However, the official Soviet declaration stated that the signing took place at 22:43 CET on 8 May, meaning that the signing still took place before the German surrender took effect. The definitive Act of Military Surrender differed from

13100-532: The position of refusing a direct order, thereby stripping them of any legal protection as prisoners of war . These surrenders in the west had succeeded in ceasing hostilities between the Western allies and German forces on almost all fronts. At the same time however, the broadcast orders of the Dönitz government continued to oppose any acts of German surrender to Soviet forces in Courland, Bohemia and Mecklenburg; indeed attempting to countermand ongoing surrender negotiations both in Berlin and Breslau. German forces in

13231-416: The possibility that Communist revolutionary ideas would spread (a concern shared by many Central Powers). Hence, many of the countries expressed their support for the Whites, including the provision of troops and supplies. Winston Churchill declared that Bolshevism must be "strangled in its cradle". The British and French had supported Russia during World War I on a massive scale with war materials. After

13362-458: The rebellion as orchestrated by the SRs, there is actually no evidence that they were involved into peasant violence, which they deemed as counterproductive. The Western Allies armed and supported opponents of the Bolsheviks . They were worried about a possible Russo-German alliance, the prospect of the Bolsheviks making good on their threats to default on Imperial Russia's massive foreign debts and

13493-411: The reorganization of the Red Guards into a Workers' and Peasants' Red Army in order to create a more effective fighting force. The Bolsheviks appointed political commissars to each unit of the Red Army to maintain morale and to ensure loyalty. In June 1918, when it had become apparent that a revolutionary army composed solely of workers would not suffice, Trotsky instituted mandatory conscription of

13624-546: The rural peasantry into the Red Army. The Bolsheviks overcame opposition of rural Russians to Red Army conscription units by taking hostages and shooting them when necessary in order to force compliance. The forced conscription drive had mixed results, successfully creating a larger army than the Whites, but with members indifferent towards communist ideology . The Red Army also utilized former Tsarist officers as "military specialists" ( voenspetsy ); sometimes their families were taken hostage in order to ensure their loyalty. At

13755-565: The second Revolution of 1917. The initial stage of the October Revolution which involved the assault on Petrograd occurred largely without any human casualties . Despite the Bolsheviks' seizure of power, they lost to the Socialist Revolutionary Party in the 1917 Russian Constituent Assembly election , and the Constituent Assembly was dissolved by the Bolsheviks in retaliation. The Bolsheviks soon lost

13886-454: The signing of a general surrender at Reims in bad faith, and that consequently neither the Soviet Command nor the German forces would accept the Reims surrender as effecting an end to hostilities between them. General Ferdinand Schörner commanding Army Group Centre, broadcast a message to his troops on 8 May 1945 denouncing "false rumors" that the OKW had surrendered to the Soviet Command as well as

14017-479: The start of the civil war, former Tsarist officers formed three-quarters of the Red Army officer-corps. By its end, 83% of all Red Army divisional and corps commanders were ex-Tsarist soldiers. The White movement (Russian: pre–1918 Бѣлое движеніе / post–1918 Белое движение , romanized : Beloye dvizheniye , IPA: [ˈbʲɛləɪ dvʲɪˈʐenʲɪɪ] ) also known as the Whites ( Белые , Beliye ),

14148-475: The successor-organisation of the old Imperial Russian Army , started to disintegrate; the Bolsheviks used the volunteer-based Red Guards as their main military force, augmented by an armed military component of the Cheka (the Bolshevik state secret police ). In January 1918, after significant Bolshevik reverses in combat, the future Russian People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs Leon Trotsky headed

14279-824: The support of other far-left allies, such as the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries , after their acceptance of the terms of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk presented by the German Empire. Conversely, a number of prominent members of the Left Socialist Revolutionaries had assumed positions in Lenin's government and led commissariats in several areas. This included agriculture ( Kolegaev ), property ( Karelin ), justice ( Steinberg ), post offices and telegraphs ( Proshian ) and local government (Trutovsky). The Bolsheviks also reserved

14410-563: The surrender by the German government to Allied representatives of almost all its powers and authority, the release and repatriation of prisoners and forced laborers, the cessation of radio broadcasts, the provision of intelligence and information, the maintenance of weapons and infrastructure, the yielding of Nazi leaders for war crimes trials, and the power of Allied Representatives to issue proclamations, orders, ordinances, and instructions covering "additional political, administrative, economic, financial, military and other requirements arising from

14541-437: The surrender of the German military had effected the complete termination of Nazi Germany . As the protecting powers complied fully with the Allied demands, the German state ceased as a diplomatic entity on 8 May 1945 until the establishment of West Germany on 23 May 1949. In other words, the fall of German Reich ( 1871 -1945) that included Nazi Germany leads to the fact that Germany de facto lost its own government to become

14672-411: The three primary Allied Powers. These guidelines formed the basis for the series of partial capitulations of German forces to the Western Allies in April and May 1945. As the German surrender happened, the EAC text was substituted by a simplified, military-only version based on the wording of the partial surrender instrument of German forces in Italy signed at the surrender of Caserta . The reasons for

14803-424: The transfer of all archives and records to one or another of the embassies of the western Allies. On 8 May 1945, these arrangements were put into effect in full, notwithstanding that the only German parties to the signed surrender document had been the German High Command ("Oberkommando der Wehrmacht"-OKW); the western Allies maintaining that a functioning German state had already ceased to exist, and consequently that

14934-583: The treaty, it looked like much of that material would fall into the hands of the Germans. To meet that danger, the Allies intervened with Great Britain and France sending troops into Russian ports. There were violent clashes with the Bolsheviks. Britain intervened in support of the White forces to defeat the Bolsheviks and prevent the spread of communism across Europe. The German Empire created several short-lived buffer states within its sphere of influence after

15065-489: The ultra-nationalist Black Hundreds on the right. The Russian Constituent Assembly had been a demand of the Bolsheviks against the Provisional Government, which kept delaying it. After the October Revolution the elections were run by the body appointed by the previous Provisional Government. It was based on universal suffrage but used party lists from before the Left-Right SR split. The anti-Bolshevik Right SRs won

15196-687: The uprising in Vladivostok . At the Fifth All–Russian Congress of Soviets of July 4, 1918, the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries had 352 delegates compared to 745 Bolsheviks out of 1132 total. The Left SRs raised disagreements on the suppression of rival parties, the death penalty, and mainly, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. The Bolsheviks excluded the Right SRs and Mensheviks from the government on 14 June for associating with counterrevolutionaries and seeking to "organize armed attacks against

15327-647: The vacated civil authority in Germany had consequently been assumed solely by the four Allied Representative Powers (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, United States of America, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and French Republic) on behalf of the Allied Governments overall, an authority subsequently constituted into the Allied Control Council (ACC). Stalin had, however, already backtracked on his previous support for

15458-527: The war was fought across three main fronts: the eastern, the southern and the northwestern. It can also be roughly split into the following periods. The first period lasted from the Revolution until the Armistice, or roughly March 1917 to November 1918. Already on the date of the Revolution, Cossack General Alexey Kaledin refused to recognize it and assumed full governmental authority in the Don region, where

15589-608: The war, mostly civilians. The Russian Empire fought in World War I from 1914 alongside France and the United Kingdom ( Triple Entente ) against Germany, Austria-Hungary and Ottoman Empire ( Central Powers ). The February Revolution of 1917 resulted in the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II of Russia . As a result, the social-democratic Russian Provisional Government was established, and soviets , elected councils of workers, soldiers, and peasants, were organized throughout

15720-499: The workers and peasants" (though Mensheviks had not supported them), while the Left SRs advocated forming a government of all socialist parties. The Left SRs agreed with extrajudicial execution of political opponents to stop the counterrevolution, but opposed having the government legally pronouncing death sentences, an unusual position that is best understood within the context of the group's terrorist past. The Left SRs strongly opposed

15851-550: Was a legal document effecting the unconditional surrender of the remaining German armed forces to the Allies , ending World War II in Europe . It was signed at 22:43 CET on 8 May 1945 and took effect at 23:01 CET on the same day. The day before that, Germany had signed another surrender document close to it with the Allies in Reims in France, but it was not recognized by the Soviet Union for enforcement, so another document

15982-483: Was a loose confederation of anti-communist forces that fought the communist Bolsheviks , also known as the Reds , in the Russian Civil War and that to a lesser extent continued operating as militarized associations of rebels both outside and within Russian borders in Siberia until roughly World War II (1939–1945). The movement's military arm was the White Army (Бѣлая армія / Белая армия, Belaya armiya ), also known as

16113-592: Was appointed to the duty of rooting out counter-revolutionary threats to the Soviet government . He was the director of the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (aka Cheka ), a predecessor of the KGB that served as the secret police for the Soviets. The Bolsheviks had begun to see the anarchists as a legitimate threat and associate criminality such as robberies , expropriations and murders with anarchist associations. Subsequently,

16244-523: Was counterrevolutionary and equivalent to "down with the soviets". The Constituent Assembly met on January 18, 1918. The Right SR Chernov was elected president defeating the Bolshevik supported candidate, the Left SR Maria Spiridonova (she would later break with the Bolsheviks and after the decades of gulag , she was shot on Stalin's orders in 1941). The Bolsheviks subsequently disbanded the Constituent Assembly and proceeded to rule

16375-602: Was executed in Alexander Garden . The order was carried out by the commander of the Kremlin, the former Baltic sailor P. D. Malkov and a group of Latvian Bolsheviks on September 3, 1918, with a bullet to the back of the head. Her corpse was bundled into a barrel and set alight. The order came from Yakov Sverdlov , who only six weeks earlier had ordered the murder of the Tsar and his family. These events persuaded

16506-504: Was headline news in the western media on 8 May. Realizing that it had become politically impossible to keep to the original timetable, it was eventually agreed that the Western Allies would celebrate " Victory in Europe Day " on 8 May, but that western leaders would not make their formal proclamations of Victory until that evening (when the Berlin signing ceremony should be imminent). The Soviet government made no public acknowledgement of

16637-535: Was introduced as a concession. The policies of "food dictatorship" proclaimed by the Bolsheviks in May 1918 sparked violent resistance in numerous districts of European Russia : revolts and clashes between the peasants and the Red Army were reported in Voronezh , Tambov , Penza , Saratov and in the districts of Kostroma , Moscow , Novgorod , Petrograd , Pskov and Smolensk . The revolts were bloodily crushed by

16768-603: Was needed to sign; and in addition, immediately after signing the German forces were ordered to cease fire in the west and continue fighting in the east. Germany under the Flensburg Government led by the head of state, Grand-Admiral Karl Dönitz , also accepted the Allied suggestion to sign a new document. The document was signed at the seat of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany ( Karlshorst , Berlin ) by representatives from

16899-405: Was not banned, leading Nazis were not detained, and the symbols of Nazism remained in place. Because of these shortcomings, neither the Soviets nor the Americans recognized Dönitz or the Flensburg Government as capable of representing the German state. At Hitler's death, German armies remained in the Atlantic pockets of La Rochelle , St Nazaire , Lorient , Dunkirk and the Channel Islands ;

17030-477: Was provided to them. The definitive Act of Military Surrender was dated as being signed before midnight on 8 May at the seat of the Soviet Military Administration in Berlin- Karlshorst , now the location of the Museum Berlin-Karlshorst . Since Eisenhower as Supreme Allied Commander for Western Europe technically outranked Zhukov, the act of signing on behalf of the Western Allies passed to his deputy, Air Chief Marshal Arthur Tedder . The proposed Soviet amendments to

17161-451: Was sent to Reims to attempt to persuade Eisenhower otherwise, but Eisenhower shortcircuited any discussion by announcing at 21:00 pm on the 6th that, in the absence of a complete capitulation, he would close British and American lines to surrendering German forces at midnight on 8 May and resume the bombing offensive against remaining German-held positions and towns. Jodl telegraphed this message to Dönitz, who responded, authorizing him to sign

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