The Second World War should have been the moment for which Russians opposed to the Stalinist regime had been waiting. Both émigré and Soviet citizens alike had reached the conclusion that individuals alone would be unable to alter the Stalinist system. State control of propaganda and the system of terror made it very difficult for the individual to act. Added to this, the sheer size of the country and state control of all communications militated against the success of any uprising in the USSR. All insurrections between the Bolshevik seizure of power in 1917 and the outbreak of the Second World War were successfully crushed by force. Consequently, those Russians who were opposed to the regime felt that change could only occur after some sort of external shock or conflict had weakened the Soviet government and provided the opportunity for substantial restructuring. They hoped that the war would be the catalyst for a change of this kind, and the moment for decisive action. Right from the moment of capture, Soviet citizens expressed a wish to fight the Soviet state, and already by the autumn of 1941 had created military formations which they hoped would help them to achieve their aim.

However, the Nazis were intent on implementing Hitler's racial theories. They remained totally indifferent to the fate of the Russian people, who were to be subjugated and forced into the service of the Aryan race. The sovereign Soviet state was to be converted into a Russian one possessing subordinate colonial status.