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USSR Central Asia |
See also: Ostlegionen and Turkic, Caucasian, Cossack, and Crimean collaborationism with the Axis powers
Volunteer freiwillige troops of the Turkestan Legion in France, 1943Although Turkic peoples had been perceived initially as "racially inferior" by the Nazis, this attitude officially already changed in autumn 1941, when, in view of the difficulties faced in their invasion of the Soviet Union, the Nazis attempted to harness the anti-Russian sentiment of Turkic peoples in Soviet Union for political gain. The first Turkestan Legion was mobilized in May 1942.
The East Battalions contained between 275,000 and 350,000 "Muslim and Caucasian" volunteers and conscripts.[97]
Volunteer freiwillige troops of the Turkestan Legion in France, 1943Although Turkic peoples had been perceived initially as "racially inferior" by the Nazis, this attitude officially already changed in autumn 1941, when, in view of the difficulties faced in their invasion of the Soviet Union, the Nazis attempted to harness the anti-Russian sentiment of Turkic peoples in Soviet Union for political gain. The first Turkestan Legion was mobilized in May 1942.
The East Battalions contained between 275,000 and 350,000 "Muslim and Caucasian" volunteers and conscripts.[97]