Boris Smyslovsky

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Boris Alexeyevich Smyslovsky (also Smyslovsky-Holmston and Holmston-Smyslovsky) (3 December 1897 – 5 September 1988) was a Russian-Finnish general, émigré, and anti-communist. His pseudonyms were Arthur Holmston and Hauptmann von Regenau. He commanded the pro-Axis collaborationist First Russian National Army during World War II.

Early life[]

Smyslovsky was born in Terijoki, Grand Duchy of Finland (today Zelenogorsk, Saint Petersburg, Russia).

World War I[]

He later joined the Imperial Russian Army where he advanced to the rank of captain in the Imperial Guards.

Russian Civil War and interwar[]

During the Russian Civil War he fought against the Bolsheviks in the White Army and then moved to Poland, later to Germany. There he attended the Prussian Military Academy. His view was that foreign intervention and help was needed to free Russia from Bolshevism.

World War II[]

The White émigré and Russian nationalist Boris Smyslovksy, commanded the eastern battalion of the Russian All-Military Union based in Warsaw, and in July 1941 formed an Abwehr Training Battalion (Lehrbattalion) for anti-partisan and warfare duties under Wehrmacht Army Group North. By December, he had recruited more than 10,000 Russians into 12 reconnaissance battalions, unified into Sonderdivision R.^[1] In March 1942, Smyslovsky formed the Sonderstab R counter-intelligence agency in Warsaw, with Colonel Mikhail M. Shapovalov controlling 1,000 agents in detachment in Pskov.

He soon realized that Nazi ideology was at collision with his views of intelligent use of Russian anti-Bolshevik forces^{[citation needed]} and established feelers to Switzerland in case he would need asylum at the war's end.

1st Russian National Army[]

Towards the end of the war Germany upgraded its Russian volunteers in the war effort, and the army led by Smyslovsky was eventually elevated to the 1st Russian National Army, i.e. the status of an independent allied army, on 10 March 1945. By April 1945, Smyslovsky had moved his fighters to Feldkirch where he met Grand Duke Vladimir Cyrillovich, the Romanov claimant to the Russian Imperial Crown. The whittled-down army of 462 men, 30 women, and 2 children then moved into neutral Liechtenstein^[2] on 2 May 1945, the Grand Duke, however, decided to stay in the US occupied zone in Austria because neither Liechtenstein nor Switzerland would issue him a visa.^[3][4] The Russians were cared for by the Liechtenstein Red Cross. On 16 August 1945, a Soviet delegation came to Liechtenstein in an attempt to repatriate the Russians. Homesick and subject to cajoling and menacing, about 200 of the group agreed to return. They departed in a train to Vienna and nothing was ever heard of them again.^[4] The remainder stayed in Liechtenstein for another year, resisting with support of Liechtenstein further pressure by the Soviet government to participate in the repatriation program. Eventually the government of Argentina offered asylum, and about a hundred people left. Smyslovsky was visited by Allen Dulles and other Western military experts to learn more about his expertise regarding the Soviet Union and handed information over to Reinhard Gehlen's espionage system.

According to Alexander Frick, Prime Minister of Liechtenstein, the Russians were at no point in danger of being extradited, and the local population fully supported the government in providing asylum to the Russians.^[4] The small population of the country (12,141 in 1945) supported the émigrés (4% of the population) at a rate of CHF 30,000 per month for 2 years and paid their costs to move to Argentina; they did not know that these costs were later to be reimbursed by Germany. While the Western Allies and other countries in Europe complied with Soviet requests to repatriate Soviet citizens regardless of their individual wishes, Liechtenstein was the only country that stood up to these demands and informed the Soviet government that only those Russians who wanted to go home would be permitted to go.^[4] Those soldiers of the 1st Russian National Army who chose to return to the USSR were summarily executed by the Soviet military authorities on the way by train to the Soviet Union in Hungary.

Most of the rest went into exile in Argentina, including Smyslovsky. But in 1975, he returned to Liechtenstein with his wife Irene. Smyslovsky died in Vaduz on 5 September 1988.^[5]

Awards and decorations[]

• Order of Saint Stanislaus (Imperial House of Romanov) 3rd and 4th class with swords and ribbon
• Order of Saint Anne 3rd class with swords and ribbon and 4th class for bravery
• Eastern Front Medal
• War Merit Cross 2nd class with swords
• Iron Cross 2nd class
• Ostvolk Medal 2nd class in gold and silver with swords
• Ostvolk Medal 1st class in gold and silver with swords
• Order of the German Eagle 2nd class with swords

Movie[]

The 1993 French movie Vent d'est directed by Robert Enrico, is based on the perambulation of Smyslovsky and his army. The General is played by Malcolm McDowell.

See also[]

• Russian Monument (Liechtenstein)
• Russian Liberation Movement
• Andrey Vlasov
• Bronislav Kaminski

References[]

External links[]

• Vent d'est (1993) movie