To the question about the sources, characteristics and forms of manifestation of collaborationism during the Great Patriotic War

The study is devoted to the consideration of key issues in the formation and development of the collaborationist movement in the USSR during the Great Patriotic War. The causes and historical roots of this phenomenon in Soviet society are identified. Uniting beginning of manifestation of various forms of collaboration among various social, ethnic, religious groups and layers of the Soviet society in prewar and war years were anticommunism and petty-bourgeois nationalism. Anticommunism and petty-bourgeois nationalism were unifying beginning of the manifestation of various forms of manifestation of collaborationism among various social, ethnic, religious groups and strata of Soviet society in the prewar and war years. They were closely combined with general rusophobia which took root many hundreds of years among first of all the people of Baltic which were shortly before war a part of the USSR (Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians) and western areas of the Ukraine and Belarus. For more than 700 years the territories of the peoples of Western Ukraine and Belarus were in the position of actually colonies of neighboring states, primarily Poland, and were often a springboard for carrying out aggressive actions against Soviet Russia, and these peoples themselves were subjected to long-term ideological influence in the spirit of contempt and hatred of the Russian people. The main forms, directions and results of cooperation of local nationalists on the basis of collaboration with the German invaders were examined. The main attention was paid to the consideration of issues of military cooperation with the invaders, the creation of military units, formed mainly from among the prisoners of war of the Red Army, as well as partially and civilians who voluntarily or forcedly went over to the side of the enemy. The reasons for mass refusals and desertions from the ranks of the Red Army, primarily from among Soviet citizensconscripts and military personnel, as well as measures taken against the manifestation of collaboration, and the attitude of the top political leadership of Germany and Wehrmacht command to their use at different stages of the war were revealed. The data on quantitative and national composition of the collaborationist military formations were provided.