Sergei Kuzmich Bunyachenko (, ; 5 October 1902 – 2 August 1946) was a Soviet Red Army defector to the German side during World War II and a major general in the collaborationist Russian Liberation Army (ROA). He was convicted of treason and hanged in 1946.
Early career
Bunyachenko was born to a poor peasant family of Ukrainian origin in the Kursk Governate (modern day Kursk Oblast). In April 1918, at the age of 15, he enlisted in the Red Army and fought in the Russian Civil War in Ukraine as an infantryman. He joined the Communist Party in 1919, and graduated from the Odessa Military Academy in 1923. After graduation, he was promoted to the rank of assistant company commander, and fought against the Basmachi Revolt in Central Asia. He was awarded a badge "For Military Merit" by the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic. He continued to serve in Soviet Central Asia into 1930. From 1932-1935, he studied at the Frunze Military Academy, and afterwards was promoted to chief of staff of the 78th separate regiment.
Senior officer of the Soviet Union
In 1937, Bunyachenko was expelled from the Communist Party for criticizing agricultural collectivization policies conducted by the Soviet Union, especially in Ukraine. This removal was later downgraded to a severe reprimand under unknown circumstances.
Bunyachenko was appointed the assistant chief of staff of the 39th Rifle Corps, and fought in 1938 at the Battle of Lake Khasan.
In 1942, Bunyachenko was appointed the commander of the 389th Infantry Division, which was engaged in fighting on the Transcaucasian Front. While in this post, in August 1942, Bunyachenko was ordered to detonate a bridge across the Terek River near the Mozdok-Chervtyonoe region. He followed orders as given, but some units of the Red Army had not yet crossed the river and were cut off from the main defensive formation. In the aftermath, Bunyachenko was arrested and put on trial.
In September 1942, Bunyachenko was sentenced to death by a military tribunal. His sentence was later commuted to 10 years in a gulag, to be served after the end of the war, and was reinstated as an officer. He was then appointed the commander of the 59th rifle brigade, which had lost over 35% of its personnel in combat prior to his command. By November 1942, the brigade was functionally destroyed. Bunyachenko was blamed for the loss of the brigade, and was threatened with a new arrest.
Capture and Service in the Russian Liberation Army
In December 1942, Bunyachenko was captured by a reconnaissance group of the 2nd Romanian Infantry Division, 25 km west of Vladikavkaz. He was held in a concentration camp in Crimea and Kherson from his capture until June 1943. In May, he applied to join the Russian Liberation Army, a collaborationist anti-Communist force led by General Andrey Vlasov.
By September 1943, he had been approved to serve as a communications officer in the headquarters of the German 7th Army in Le Mans, in the Sarthe department. In June and July 1944, he led a combined regiment of two Eastern battalions in a defense against Operation Overlord in an unknown portion of the French coast. He was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd class for his actions on the Western Front. On 10 November 1944 he was promoted to commander of the First Infantry Division of the ROA, leading a total of twenty thousand soldiers and auxiliary personnel.
In February 1945 Bunyachenko was promoted to Major General, and was rotated to the Eastern front in March. In Mid-April he participated in Operation: April Weather, an effort to defend the Oder River, which today marks the German-Polish border, from the encroaching Red Army. When Operation: April Weather failed, General Bunyachenko ordered his troops to withdraw from the river into Czechia on 16 April.
One source alleges that Vlasov and Bunyachenko together intended to muster the ROA in Slovenia and strike against Jozip Tito's partisans. This source states that the ROA intended to retake Slovenia and portions of Croatia and Northern Bosnia and establish a "White Yugoslavia" which would be friendly to the Allies and particularly America in the war's aftermath. This source is not corroborated, and should be treated with skepticism. It is, however, a matter of historical record that the ROA and Bunyachenko defected from the Nazis and attempted to align themselves to the Western Allies as Endsieg approached.