page_title: 29th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS "RONA" (1st Russian)
section_title: Volksheer-Brigade
hierarchical_section_title: 29th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS "RONA" (1st Russian) / History / Volksheer-Brigade
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Russen kämpfen gegen Bolschewisten, Vom Führer mit dem Eisernen Kreuz I. [Klasse] ausgezeichnet, hatte der Brigadekommandeur landeseigener Freiwilliger, [Borislaw] Kaminski, hervorragenden Anteil an der Vernichtung bolschewistischer Banden im Osten. Sachklassifikation/ E(Zweiter Weltkrieg 1939-1945)/ Ec (Wehrmacht)/ Ec 300 (Freiwillige anderer Nationalitäten in der Wehrmacht)/ Ec 360 (Aus der Sowjetunion)/ Ec 361 (Russen) Sachklassifikation/ E (Zweiter Weltkrieg 1939-1945) / Ec {Wehrmacht} /Ec 700 (Partisanen, Partisanenbekämpfung) Foto: PK-Wehmeyer
context_page_description: 29th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS “RONA” (1st Russian) was a collaborationist formation composed of Soviet nationals from the territory of the Lokot Autonomy in Axis-occupied areas of the RSFSR in the Soviet Union during the German–Soviet War of 1941−45.
  It was founded in late 1941 as auxiliary police with 200 personnel. By mid-1943 it had grown to 10,000-12,000 men, equipped with captured Soviet tanks and artillery. Bronislav Kaminski, the unit's leader, named it the Russian National Liberation Army.
  After the Wehrmacht lost the Battle of Kursk in August 1943, RONA personnel retreated to the territory of Byelorussia, especially to the Lepel area of Vitebsk, where they became involved in German security operations, committing numerous atrocities against the civilian population. In March 1944 the unit was briefly renamed the Volksheer-Brigade Kaminski, before being absorbed into the Waffen-SS in June 1944.
  With its transfer to the Waffen-SS, the brigade was renamed the Waffen-Sturm-Brigade RONA, and Kaminski gained the rank of Waffen-Brigadeführer der SS.
context_section_description: At this point, the brigade's ranks were replenished by the addition of police forces from Belarus.  In March 1944, the brigade was renamed Volksheer-Brigade Kaminski. Starting on April 11, 1944, it was attached to SS-Kampfgruppe von Gottberg, which also included the notorious Dirlewanger unit, and participated in a series of anti-partisan operations: Regenschauer (up to 7,000 partisans reported as killed), Frühlingsfest (7,011 partisans reported as killed and 1,065 weapons captured) and Kormoran (7,697 partisans reported as killed and 325 weapons captured). During these operations local civilians were shot as "suspected partisans" or deported as slave laborers, their villages burned down.
caption: Bronislav Kaminski and personnel of the Volksheer-Brigade Kaminski" operation"Frühlingsfest", Belarus, May 1944
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