“Deserting the Flag” as a Behavioral Strategy of Wehrmacht Soldiers and the Armies of Its Satellites (About the article by R.I. Larintsev, and A.N. Zablotskii “Defectors from the Wehrmacht at the Soviet-German Front in 1941–1943”)

Abstract

In this article, the author examines little-studied and controversial aspects of the issue of defectors from among soldiers of the German army and its allies on the Eastern Front during the Great Patriotic War. Special attention is given to the methodology and source study of the problem under consideration as well as to the analysis of the ideological and psychological prerequisites for the phenomenon of defecting to the enemy. The author comes to the conclusion that a comprehensive study of the problem of defectors opens up new perspectives for studying the history of military captivity during the Great Patriotic War.

Keywords

• great patriotic war
• soviet–german front
• wehrmacht
• red army
• defectors
• special propaganda