Inside the Turkestan Legion: Discipline, Propaganda and Survival in WWII

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]In the first 450th battalion of the Turkystan Legion, company and platoon commanders enforced harsh discipline and informed on their soldiers to the Germans. The company commander, a Russian German and former White Guard member who called himself an expert on Eastern affairs mercilessly tyrannized the soldiers. Platoon commanders and staff officers constantly informed on the soldiers. Mullers were in charge of propaganda work. The propaganda wasn't always in favor of the Reich. For instance, a battalion Mulla of Lesgian origin, a graduate of the Durban Pedagogical College, was anti-German and planned to defect to the Reds. On October 3rd, 1942, in the operational area of the Black Sea Group of the Transcaucasian Front, three soldiers from the second 452nd battalion of the Turkiststan Legion defected to the workers and peasants red army. Alexander Burginov, Ibra Tulabv, and Sitdic Kasanov. At the front's political department, they spoke about the treatment of legionnaires by the Germans and their collaborators. The treatment of legionnaires by the Germans and collaborators was little better than in prisoner of war camps. [music] The battalion commander, a German Oberloitin named Balman, shot a soldier through both legs for a minor offense. German company commanders, the Feld Rebels, brutally beat the soldiers every day with their fists or sticks. Another company commander, a Tatar volunteer, beat his subordinates even worse than the Germans did. Kazak platoon leaders behaved exactly the same way. On the eve of their departure for the front, the battalion was lined up in the courtyard in a square by company, the defector said. Facing the battalion was a group of about 20 German officers. In front of them on the left flank stood a mulla in a turban with eight light machine guns nearby. On the right side there were eight heavy machine guns and another mulla in a turban. The senior mulla stood by a cannon aimed at the battalion. There was no crew. A banner stood next to the cannon near the mulla.

[00:02:00]A mulla presumably Hoja Purbeck delivered a speech. We Muslims must destroy the Boleviks. Then Kazakhstan will become an independent state. There will be no collective farms. Everyone will have their own land. Germany will be in power and Mulahheim Caillou will lead Kazakhstan.

[00:02:20]Mullah visited the Lenovo and Jedlin camps in July 1942.

[00:02:27]According to the defectors, the Legionnaire's attitude toward the Mullas was reserved. They listened to them, trying to find out through them what the Germans intended to do with them. The legionnaires hid their true feelings from the mullers.