May 12, 1901 - Andrey Vlasov

Andrey Andreyevich Vlasov (Russian: Андре́й Андре́евич Вла́сов, September 14 [O.S. September 1] 1901 – August 1, 1946) was a Soviet Russian Red Army general.

Initially, this army existed only on paper and was used by Germans to goad Red Army troops to surrender, while any political and military activities were officially forbidden to him by the Nazis after his visits to the occupied territory; only in November 1944 did Heinrich Himmler, aware of Germany's shortage of manpower, arrange for Vlasov's formations, composed of Soviet prisoners of war as armed forces of Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia, a political organisation headed by Vlasov. While for the Nazis the ROA was a mere propaganda weapon, Vlasov and his associates attempted to create an armed political movement independent of the Nazi control that would present an anti-Stalinist program described by Robert Conquest as democratic, while attempting to avoid Nazi antisemitism and chauvinism, with "completing the Revolution" of 1917 being the ultimate goal of the movement.

In January 1945, Vlasov headed the army as it was declared that it would be no longer a part of the Wehrmacht. At the war's end, the 1st division of ROA aided the May 1945 Prague uprising against the Germans. Vlasov and the ROA were captured by Soviet forces with the United States' assistance.

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