User:Suid26/Mikhail Mikhailovich Shapovalov

Mikhail Mikhailovich Shapovalov (Russian: Михаи́л Миха́йлович Шапова́лов) (11 January 1898 – 8 May 1946) was a Soviet Colonel and later Major General in the Nazi-affiliated Russian Liberation Army. After deserting to the Germans in Second World War during the Battle of Kerch in 1942, he collaborated with the Germans in the Abwehr and later joined the Russian Liberation Army until being captured and executed in 1945 by Czech Partisans.

Early Life
Shapovalov was born to a peasant family in Kursk Governorate, Russian Empire. The date and place of his birth is disputed, but it said to be either in the town of Grayvoron in 1898 or in the village of Novostrovenka in 1901. However, he was also alleged to have come from 'kulak origins' after his expulsion from the Russian Communist Party in 1921.

Education
He graduated from a real school in Belgorod in 1915, and then in May 1919 went on to study the Moscow Calvary Command Staff course. During his military career, he was enrolled as a chemical cadet and was sent to study at the Moscow Higher Military Chemical School of the Red Army.

Russian Civil War
Shapovalov's early career is mostly unknown, however, in May 1915, he served in the 9th Uhlan Bug Regiment, a cavalry regiment part of the 1st Brigade, 9th Cavalry Division. It was during the First World War that he was commissioned as a junior officer.

After the demobilisation of the Imperial Russian Army following the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, he joined the Red Army and commanded a squadron of the 8th Insurgent Regiment, which took part in battles against the Central Rada. However, in December 20th 1918 he was captured by the Central Rada and later escaped on January 17th in 1919. He later participated in battles against Admiral Alexander Kolchak and later fought on the Southern, South-Eastern, Caucasian, South-Western and Western fronts as well as fighting against Anton Denikin and Pyotr Wrangel until he was wounded in August 1921.

Pre-war
After the civil war, he was expelled from the Communist Party because of his former career as a cavalry officer in the Russian Empire. Following this, he went on to study chemistry and later served as the Head of Chemical Services in Vladivostok and later became Chief of Staff for the fortified area in Vladivostok. During this position he was promoted to Major and Colonel in 1937. He served in Vladivostok until he was arrested in c. 1937 by the NKVD for being a participant in an 'anti-soviet, military-fascist conspiracy' and spent 8 months in prison. He was saved from being executed due to a temporary pause in repressions by Lavrentiy Beria. After his release he was appointed Head of the Sevastopol Artillery School and studied at the Frunze Military Academy from 1939 to 1941.

Second World War
After graduating, he was appointed commander of the 1st Crimean People's Militia Division, the predecessor to the 320th Rifle Division (Soviet Union). He took part in a battle against the Germans defending positions at the Isthmus of Ak-Monay On June 2nd 1942, he was appointed deputy-commander of the 1st Separate Rifle Corps, and later commander. He was ordered to redeploy to Armavir and to defend the right bank of the Kuban River, it was here that he was engaged in battle against the 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking, 16th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht) and the 13th Panzer Division (Wehrmacht). Due to manpower and equipment shortages, Shapovalov withdrew his troops to the left bank of the river. On August 14th 1942, Shapovalov deserted his troops and voluntarily surrendered to the Germans with his wife. It is unclear on why Colonel Shapovalov did this, but his desertion ultimately led to the loss of positions along the Kuban River.

Collaboration with the Germans
After spending a brief time in a Prisoner-of-war camp, Shapovalov became an ordinary propagandist for the 1st Panzer Army, appearing in material for the XV SS Cossack Cavalry Corps, and addressed Red army soldiers with appeals and leaflets to fight against the 'Stalinist dictatorship'

Since 1943, Shapovalov had been appointed Chief of Staff for the Special Staff "R" of the German Intelligence Service Abwehr in Warsaw until the unit was disbanded and was given the rank of Generalmajor. After the disbandment, he was sent to the city of Toruń where he served as the head of a camp in which captured Soviet engineering and technical workers were kept who collected and processed information about the military-industrial complex of the USSR.

In December 1944, Shapovalov joined the forces of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia and served as a Major General. In February 1945, he was promoted to Commander of the 700th (Russian) Infantry Division, 3rd Division of the KONR, however the unit never finished forming and had around 10,000 unarmed men.

In April 1945, Shapovalov moved to join the Southern Group of Russian Liberation Army troops under General Fyodor Truhin in the Czech Republic. At Kempten he met with units of the 1st Russian National Army under Wehrmacht Major General Boris Smyslovsky, which was fleeing to Switzerland and Liechtenstein. However, Shapovalov refused to join them and in early May, in the area of ​​Rhein-Sieg-Kreis, he joined the Southern Group of the Russian Liberation Army. On May 3, Shapovalov flew to the Prague area to obtain information about the Northern Group of Forces of the Russian Liberation Army led by General Sergei Bunyachenko, where Chairman of the Commitee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia, Lieutenant General Andrey Vlasov was also located.

Death
On May 5, he returned to the Southern Group of Russian Liberation Army troops with information regarding Bunyachenko’s desire to turn against and fight the Nazis during the Prague Uprising. But when he left for Prague on May 8, he was ambushed in the Příbram area, where he was detained by Czech partisans and, being identified by a Soviet paratrooper as a collaborator, was shot. By order of the Main Directorate of the Red Army, he was excluded from the lists of the Red Army on December 2, 1946.