Russian Liberation Army (Russian: Russkaya Osvoboditel'naya Armiya, ??????? ??????????????? ?????, abbreviated in Cyrillic as POA, in Latin as ROA, also known as the Vlasov army) was a group of predominantly Russian forces allied with Nazi Germany during World War II. The ROA was organized by former Red Army general Andrey Vlasov, who tried to unite all Russians in opposing the regime of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. Amidst the volunteers were Soviet prisoners of war, eastern workers (Ostarbeiter), and Russian White emigrés (some of whom were veterans of the anticommunist White Army during the Russian Civil War). On 14 November 1944 it was officially renamed the Armed Forces of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia (VS-KONR). Origins Russian volunteers who enlisted into the German Army (Wehrmacht Heer) wore the patch of the Russian