Russian Corps The Russian Corps ( ; ) was an armed force composed of anti - Communist Russian émigrés in German - occupied Serbia . The Corps existed from 1941 to 1945 , during World War II . Commanded by Lieutenant - General Boris Shteifon , it served primarily as a guard force from the autumn of 1941 until the spring of 1944 . It was incorporated into the Wehrmacht on 1 December 1942 and later clashed with both the Yugoslav Partisans and the Chetniks . In late 1944 it fought against the Red Army during the Belgrade Offensive , later withdrawing to Bosnia and Slovenia when the Germans withdrew from the Balkans . Shteifon was killed in April 1945 and was replaced by Colonel Anatoly Rogozhin , who subsequently managed to evade the Communists by surrendering to the British instead . He and his men were eventually set free and were allowed to resettle in the West . Background . In the Balkans before World War II there were approximately 15 , 000 White Russian émigrés who had fled there in the aftermath of the 1917 Russian Revolution . On 6 April 1941 , Axis forces invaded the Kingdom of Yugoslavia . Poorly equipped and poorly trained , the Royal Yugoslav Army was quickly defeated . The country was then dismembered , with Serbia being reduced to its pre - 1912 borders and placed under a government of German military occupation . Milan Nedić , a pre - war politician who was known to have pro - Axis leanings , was then selected by the Germans to lead the collaborationist Government of National Salvation in the Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia . Formation . The Russian Corps was formed by émigré White Russians and officers of the Russian Imperial Army , which had been defeated by the Communists in the Russian Civil War twenty years earlier . Over the course of the Uprising in Serbia in the summer of 1941 , the Communist - backed Yugoslav Partisans killed approximately 300 Russian emigrants , and injured many more , sometimes in acts of vengeance . In response , local Russians began to organize themselves into self - defense units . At the time , there were an estimated 10 , 000 Russian men within the borders of Yugoslavia , the majority of whom lived in Serbia . The Russian Corps was founded in Belgrade by General Mikhail Skorodumov on 12 September 1941 and took shape under the supervision of the occupying German authorities , with the cooperation of Nedić ' s regime . At first , the group was an independent force reporting to the plenipotentiary for economic affairs , Franz Neuhausen . It was composed of White Russians who sided with the Germans because of their opposition to Communism and because they believed that their only hope of a non - Communist Russia lay in a German victory in World War II . Russian émigrés from Bulgaria , Croatia and Hungary subsequently came to Belgrade to join the unit . Due to illness , Skorodumov was replaced after only a month by his chief of staff , Lieutenant - General Boris Shteifon . The formation was initially designated the " Independent Russian Corps " before being renamed the " Russian Defense Corps " on 2 October . It was envisaged as a 3 , 000 – strong unit , organized into three regiments . By late 1941 , it was comprised of 1 , 500 members . Recruitment was carried out by Major General Kreyter , a White Russian émigré in German service who was the head of the Russian Intelligence Office ( ) in Serbia . The Corps initially consisted of a single regiment , organized into four battalions . Major General Egorov commanded the 1st Battalion , Colonel Shatilov the second , Colonel Endrzheevskiy the third and Colonel Nestrenko the fourth , respectively . A second regiment was set up on 18 October , commanded by Colonel Zhukov . Operations . Early actions . Although its aim was to fight Communist forces in the Soviet Union , the Russian Corps , when engaged in combat , was used almost exclusively to fight the Yugoslav Partisans in areas of occupied Yugoslavia . Composed of one cavalry regiment and four infantry regiments , it was reinforced with younger émigrés and former Soviet prisoners of war and was armed by the Germans with weapons captured from the Royal Yugoslav Army . Its command language was Russian . Between the autumn of 1941 and the spring of 1944 , members of the Corps were responsible primarily for protecting weapons factories , mines , roads , and railroads throughout occupied Serbia in accordance with priorities established by the German High Command . During this time , the Corps was referred to as the " Russian Factory Protection Group " ( ) . It was initially used during anti - Partisan operations to guard mines in Krupanj , and later in Bor and Trepča . In November 1941 it began actively collaborating with the Chetniks , and on 1 December 1942 it was incorporated into the Wehrmacht and all its members were required to swear an oath to Adolf Hitler . By this time the Corps was composed of five regiments of about 7 , 500 men , all of whom were Russian . An attempt was then made to expand it further by recruiting Soviet prisoners . However , this attempt proved unsuccessful and the Corps never operated as a unified fighting force , the regiments being its largest operational units . These were later assigned to act as auxiliaries to German or Bulgarian occupying forces . On 8 December 1941 , the Corps defended the Stolice mine against the Yugoslav Partisans . The Corps grew in numbers throughout 1942 , following an influx of volunteers from Bulgaria , Croatia , Romania and Greece . While guarding installations , members of the Corps were largely assigned to manning brick bunkers , protecting the railway in the Ibar River valley , the Bor , Trepča , Majdanpek , and Krupanj mines , as well as Serbian borders along the Danube and Drina rivers while deployed together with various Serbian collaborationist factions such as the Serbian Volunteer Guard ( SDS ) and the Serbian Volunteer Corps ( SDK ) . The Corps also closely cooperated with the Croatian Ustaše . During this period , members of the Corps often plundered Serbian villages . Initially , the 1st Regiment was deployed in Loznica , Ljubovija and other towns along the Drina . On the other hand , the 2nd Regiment operated in towns such as Negotin , Bor , and Majdanpek . The two regiments were operationally subordinated to the 704th German Division . The 3rd Regiment was established in Banjica on 8 January 1942 , placed under the command of Colonel Shapilov and deployed to Kosovska Mitrovica , where it was operationally subordinated to the 1st Bulgarian occupational corps . The 4th Regiment was established on 29 April with General Cherepov as commander and was deployed to the area around Kraljevo . In May , the Corps was divided into two brigades . The 1st Brigade was placed under the command of Major General Dratsenko and its headquarters was established in the town of Aranđelovac on 22 May . On 30 November , the 4th Regiment was disbanded , its 1st Battalion assigned to the 1st Regiment and the rest of its manpower assigned to the 2nd Regiment . Anti - Partisan actions . On 9 December 1942 , the 1st Regiment started to be transformed with the arrival of Kuban Cossacks led by Major General Naumenko . By January 1943 , it was fully composed of Cossacks . On 17 March 1943 , Major General Gontarev replaced Shapilov as commander of the 3rd Regiment . The 1st Regiment fought in Loznica in April and participated in a large operation in Zapolje on 11 – 15 May , where it engaged in heavy combat with Communist forces . From 1 – 8 July , the regiment was again stationed in Loznica and Ljubovija , participating in the defence of the Drina Bridge at Zvornik against the Partisans . During this time the regiment allowed the passage of 379 wounded Croatian soldiers and civilians , 1 , 000 healthy soldiers and as many refugees , sustaining casualties of two killed and seventeen wounded . It clashed with the Partisans over the village of Nedelica on 19 July . Meanwhile , the 2nd Regiment clashed with the Partisans around the town of Negotin . The 4th Regiment was re - established on 15 December , and was based in Jagodina , Paraćin and Ćuprija . Its regimental headquarters were moved to Aleksinac on 30 April and to Čačak on 15 October . 1944 . Despite numerous clashes with the Chetniks , the Corps focused increasingly on fighting the Partisans penetrating Serbia from Bosnia and the Sandžak . On 5 January , combat with the Partisans in Klenak resulted in the deaths of three Cossacks of the 1st Regiment . On 18 January , the 5th Regiment was formed in Obrenovac . The 3rd Regiment fought a 2400 - strong Partisan force advancing towards Jošanička Banja on 31 March , successfully repelling the Partisan attack . On 28 April , the 1st Regiment prepared defences along the Drina in Zvornik , Bajina Bašta and Loznica areas expecting 16th and 17th Partisan Divisions to attempt a crossing there . On 1 – 2 May , the 5th Regiment fought the Partisans in the village of Mravinci , sustaining casualties of 11 killed and 25 wounded . That summer , the Corps mediated an agreement between the Chetniks and the Germans in which the two parties agreed to fight the Partisans in Serbia . On 18 July , the 5th Regiment fought in Jošanička Banja and its regimental headquarters was moved there from Obrenovac , with battalion headquarters being established in Zvečan , Jošanička Banja , Ušće and Vučitrn . Elements of the 3rd and 5th regiments fought the Partisans on 4 – 5 August near the village of Rudnik . The Partisans attacked the positions of the 5th Regiment in Leposavić on 24 August . In September , the Corps reached its peak of 11 , 197 members . Several skirmishes occurred between the 1st Regiment and the Partisans in the Zvornik and Valjevo areas that month . On 7 / 8 September , the 2nd Regiment fought Partisans at the Ibar River , trying to deny them crossing . On 9 September , elements of the 3rd Regiment moved to Požega and on 11 September to Čačak . On 20 September , the 1st Regiment fought a group of Partisans south of Loznica . Major combat between the 1st Regiment and Partisans erupted in Loznica itself on 23 September , causing the regiment to fall back to Šabac with losses of 7 killed and 23 wounded . Combat continued daily throughout September with the 1st Regiment suffering up to 53 casualties per day . On 8 October , the 2nd Regiment headquarters in Požarevac were evacuated as Soviet armour approached the town . As parts of the regiment moved towards Belgrade and Grocka , the force came into contact with Soviet troops and armour in the Ripanj area south of Belgrade , sustaining heavy casualties . On 10 October the Russian Corps was renamed the " Russian Corps in Serbia " . Elements of the 2nd Regiment arrived in Šabac on 22 October , then moved to Sremska Mitrovica on 23 October , Vukovar on 25 October , Osijek on 26 October and then to Vinkovci and Stari Jankovci on 28 October . Further parts of the regiment moved to Zemun on 13 October , Ruma on 14 October , Vinkovci on 16 October , and Stari Jankovci on 24 October . On 19 – 22 October , the 4th Regiment fought advancing Soviet troops and Partisans and defended the Čačak - Kraljevo road . On 23 October , the 1st Regiment abandoned Šabac and Klenak and moved to Laćarak , and then to Tovarnik on 24 October where they were ordered to hold their ground . From 27 October to 2 November the 4th Regiment fought in the Čačak area before abandoning the city . On 12 November the 1st Regiment moved via railway through Vinkovci to Brčko , with elements deployed in Gunja . On 8 December it regrouped north of the Sava and on 11 – 13 December it fought the Partisans in and near the village of Vrbanja , killing forty - three . The 4th Regiment arrived in Sarajevo on 13 – 18 December . Elements subsequently moved to Kiseljak on 18 December , fighting Partisans in Kiseljak - Busovača area on 26 – 27 December . During this time , the 1st Regiment and a battalion of the 2nd Regiment guarded a bridgehead north of Brčko in order to allow German forces that were stationed in Greece to withdraw through the town . Retreat . In January 1945 , elements of the Corps participated in the German capture of Travnik , part of Operation " Lawine " . They then withdrew to Slovenia . On 30 April , Shteifon was killed while passing through Zagreb . Afterwards , Colonel Anatoly Rogozhin took over as commander . On 12 May , Rogozhin surrendered to British forces near Klagenfurt . Members of the Corps were then allowed to resettle in the West after hostilities ceased . At the time of surrender , the Corps consisted of 3 , 500 to 5 , 584 men . It had suffered 6 , 709 members killed , wounded or missing from 1941 to 1945 . Overall , 17 , 090 men served in its ranks over the course of the war . Order of battle . Throughout its existence , the Russians Corps was composed of : In May 1942 , the Corps was divided into two brigades . The 4th Regiment was disbanded on 30 November 1942 , and re - established on 15 December 1943 . The 5th Regiment was created on 18 January 1944 . Commanders . The Russian Corps had three commanders during its existence : Uniform . Members of the Corps wore the uniform of the Russian Imperial Army from 12 September 1941 to 30 November 1942 . The uniform was sometimes worn with pips of the Royal Yugoslav Army , alongside special rank insignia on the collar . Wehrmacht uniforms and insignia were adopted on 1 December 1942 , but the old uniforms continued to be worn for some time .