Evening star., 1943-06-02
By BLAIR BOLLES.

o4oShI1SLpN julio l 10y Wuc-
less) Disagreement has broken
out between the German military
command and Alfred Rosenberg
political chief for occupied Russia
over the wisdom of using Red
Renegade GN.. Adrei Vlassov as a
military Quisling to organize a
Russian liberation army" to fight
for the Nazis, according to informa-
ton reaching here via Germany.
VlassoV is said to be getting in the
hair OF Gen. Hellmich, Wehrmacht
commander at Smolensk, where
Vlassov is situated. Rosenberg is
pushing Vlassov as a great expert
ment which, judging from German
propaganda signals. tentatively is
aimed at the establishment of a
puppet Russian government over
"Rosenbergland," which stretches
from Estonia to the Crimea.
The Vlassov quarrel is part of Ger
man uncertainty about the future
political and military policy toward
Russia. While the Nazis prepare in
the west to hold back powerful
Allied invasion expected soon, they
give no signs of having an eastern
front program ready for co-ordina-
ton with defensive action in the
west. They apparently are CROP
ing for a new propaganda line, re-
specting the Soviets.
Germans Undecided.
To strike or not strike in a new
offensive toward Russia is a tough
problem for Germany to decide.
Any effort to establish Nazi de-
tense wall in the east on lines of
the Atlantic wall has been un-
observed.
The Bolshevik bogey, which pro-
vided propaganda for home con-
sumption, has been upset by the
Comintern dissolution decreed by
Stain. An obvious Nazi effort to
dissatisfy the Russian people po
litically was the statement published
in German newspapers that the
U. S. S. R. would be weak and under
the Churchill Roosevelt thumb.
This represented a turnabout from
| the old insiStence that Russia is the
great menace to Germany and
European culture.
The NaziS are telling the German
public nothing about Gen. VlasSov,
stories about whose virtues are
planted in the neutral press and in
the Nazi-controlled Russian lam
guage newspaper Nova Slovo for the
occupied zone VlasSov entered the
Red Army as a private in 1919,
joined the Communist party in 1880
and was captured by the Germans
at Kiev in l941, where he COM
! manded the 37th Red Army. 1t is
questionable whether he would make
good political Quisling
Reds Not Gullible.
Most Russians in the occupied
areas are said to refuse to accept
Nazl liberation propaganda after the
brutal mistreatment they have suf-
fered from the conquerors.
Minsk, capital of White Russia.
with populat ation of 10000, is only
now being quieted after week long
| riots which caused German police
to surround the city and cut it off
from contact with the outside world
NazlS maintain the inSurrection was
the work only Of organized partisans.
A story from Odessa says that
thousand Rumanian police are pa
trolling that Black Sea port with
machine guns in order to preserve
order.
Nazis are making vague claims
for Vlassov's success in praising the
Liberator Army among Red pris-
oners, from whose number he him.
self was selected, but military OBJ
servers doubt any extensive success
has been achieved. Some Russians
enlisting in this fashion were said
to have been sent to the western
front and distributed through Ger
man units Military men suspect the
truth of their apostasy from Bol-
SheViSm.
"ScOrched Earth" Policy.
Carefully gathered reports avail
able here say the NaziS also are
unable to exploit the captured Rus
sian regions economically. according
to the optimistic plans drawn up
by Herr Rosenberg. This area was
supposed to supply food and other
materials to Axis armies holding
front-line positions in the Kuban
and Leningrad areas The most
productive area for the Germans
thus far are the Baltic states with
their dairy products, timber and fax.
The destruction caused by the
Reds scorched earth policy is still
preventing German use of many
mines and factories in the Ukraine
industrial areas 1t is considered
likely by disinterested observers.
however, that the Ukraine will pro-
duce large quantities of foodstuffs
this year, especially the Trans-Dnies-
ter sector, between the Dniester and
Bug Rivers, which the Germans per-
NIT Rumanians to administer.
Trans-Dniestria is a sort of ap-
pendage to "Rosenbergland," which
itself is divided into two major di-