Lokot Republic

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The Lokot Republic (Russian: Локотская Республика) was a semi-autonomous region in Nazi-occupied Russia under an all-Russian administration from 1941 to 1943. The name comes from a small settlement Lokot (Локоть) of Oryol oblast (now of Bryansk oblast). The "republic" covered the area of several raions of Oryol and Kursk oblasts.

Troops of the Lokot Republic, 1942

In 1941, engineer Konstantin Voskoboinik was placed by the Nazi occupational authorities in charge of the Lokot region. Voskoboinik and his one-time classmate, engineer Bronislaw Kaminski, both former political prisoners of the Stalin regime, began recruiting an armed force to fight off the Soviet partisans. The force, called the Russian National Liberation Army, gathered 10,000 men through recruitment and conscription, and managed to hold the territory of the Lokot Republic under its control. After the death of Voskoboinik, who fell in combat, Kaminski became both the burgomeister of the republic and the commander of the RONA. The republic had the support of Heinz Guderian and of the commander of Army Group Centre, Günther von Kluge.

The relationship between the Russian administration of the Lokot Republic and the occupational forces of the Axis carried on the character of a suzerainty, unlike other Nazi-occupied eastern territories where the local administrations were under the direct control of Nazi officials. Although plans to make the Lokot administration a "Bezirksverwaltung" were not realized, the Germans did not interfere as long as their transports were kept safe and the republic delivered the required food quotas to the Wehrmacht.

Consequently, the Republic was free to pretty much govern itself, making it the first territory on Russian soil under non-communist Russian control since the evacuation of Vladivostok by White forces twenty years earlier. There was enough autonomy to permit the Republic's police force to try and execute two Axis soldiers (believed to be Hungarians) for criminal behavior.

The Lokot region and surroundings were places of settlement of many exiled and those who served term in labor camps and hence were forbidden to live in larger cities. Therefore the idea of liberation from the Bolsheviks found noticeable support.

Collective farms were abolished, and a large degree of free enterprise was permitted. Schools were open, and a radio station along with a theater group was active in the city of Bryansk. Grain prices in the republic were lower than in both Nazi and Soviet occupied territories.

Newspapers published in the Lokot Republic were typical of all newspapers published on Nazi-occupied Russian territories, featuring articles exposing Soviet crimes along with Nazi propaganda (which included the usual heavy dose of anti-Semitism). Kaminski's speeches as translated in the newspapers of the region underlined that the aims of Nazi Germany and Russia "are the same".

Whether Kaminski's pro-Nazi rhetoric was genuine or part of his tribute to the German suzerain is virtually impossible to determine. Unlike with General Vlasov and other Russian anticommunist leaders during this period, no reliable primary sources on Kaminski are currently known to exist. Historiographers can only rely on Soviet secondary sources (which paint Kaminski as a typical Quisling), a few apocryphal memoirs, and what survives of the Lokot Republic's archives, i.e. newspapers and propaganda literature - neither of which seem to provide enough insight or objectivity.

The Royal Hungarian Army Honvéd posted their Headquarters and main eastern front detachment in Kastornoye (Kastornoe), Kursk, just inside of the state; along of the Italian forces in Russian front, The "Corpo di Spedizione Italiano in Russia" (CSIR) also later known as "Armata Italiana in Russia" (ARMIR), was posted in Zaporozhye and later in Millerovo in time for the Battle of Stalingrad. Later, both detachments were devastated by Soviet forces during period of Stalingrad and Kursk battles.

The Republic's life came to an end in 1943, soon after the war on the Eastern Front changed course at Stalingrad. Kaminski had to evacuate (over 30,000 persons, with families) to Lepel of Vitebsk oblast, Belarus. In August he set up a new, "Lepel Republic", where he and his RONA were folded into the Waffen SS as "Russian SS unit No. 1". Soon thereafter Kaminski was executed by the Nazis, and the RONA was disbanded.

Anatoly Ivanov portrayed the Lokot Republic in his novel Eternal Call (Вечный зов) and the corresponding TV sequel, popular in the Soviet Union (but the fact was little known, if at all).

According to Russian sources, there was also a Partisan Republic located in Bryansk. It has to be verified, whether and in what boundaries this Partisan Republic existed. A map of the republic which includes also Lokot', is figured under [1] and [2]

According to one secondary source, a group of Kaminski's men remained in the area of the former Lokot Republic and put up a fierce partisan resistance to the Soviet forces, remaining active even several years after the war (as did the Ukrainian Nationalist Organisation or "OUN" of Stepan Bandera).^{[citation needed]}