Almost at once after the outbreak of war between the USSR and the Third Reich on 22 June 1941, Soviet citizens in German hands, particularly prisoners-of-war and those civilians employed as forced labour by the Nazis, made clear their active opposition to Stalin and his regime. The history of this opposition to Stalin in the period 1941–5 generated interest and controversy both at its inception and after the war, amongst scholars and publicists. The differing attitudes of the various German authorities to the Russian opposition movement and the impact of these divergent views was made evident throughout German policy towards the Soviet Union during the war. Owing to the closure of their independent presses in émigré centres such as Berlin, Paris and Prague by the Nazis, émigré Russians were unable to express their opinions during the war but they have indulged in bitter exchanges and polemics on this subject ever since the articles of B. I. Nikolaevsky, a Menshevik politician, historian and archivist, appeared in 1948. Nikolaevksy went to Germany immediately after the war in order to collect material, in the form of official documents and personal testimonies, on the experience and activities of the Soviet citizens who found themselves in Germany during the Second World War, supporting the campaign against Stalin.

The presence of these Soviet citizens within the Third Reich has engendered a long-standing discussion as to the extent to which they were collaborators, quislings and traitors. For some, there is no valid argument, for there is nothing to discuss: since these people were fighting against the Soviet state on the side of her armed enemy, they were clearly traitors.