Alexandr Kazantsev (real name: Georgii Kato) was born in 1908 in Chelyabinsk. He received his education in a cadet school, and with the outbreak of the Civil War he was evacuated with the Cadet Corps first to Vladivostok and then to Shanghai. In 1924, Kazantsev moved to Yugoslavia, where he completed his secondary education. There he entered the law faculty of the University of Belgrade.¹

In 1930, Kazantsev joined the People’s Labor Union of a New Generation (Narodno-trudovoi soiuz novogo pokoleniya, later renamed the People’s Labor Union of Russian Solidarists, Narodno-trudovoi soiuz rossiiskikh solidaristov, NTS). He edited the magazine “Ogni” (“Lights”) and later the main newspaper of the NTS, called “Za Rossiyu” (“For Russia”). He was also a member of the subversionary group codenamed Ldina (Ice Flow). Supported by the Japanese special services, from January 1938 to November 1939 Kazantsev, along with Boris Prianishnikov and Sergei Zezin of Ldina, produced anti-Soviet propaganda. The group’s headquarters was located in Falkensee, a suburb of Berlin.²

After the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Kazantsev tried to infiltrate the Soviet territory occupied by German troops. However, on the instructions of the NTS leadership, he was officially transferred from Belgrade to Berlin to serve in the Wehrmacht propaganda department.

He received the rank of captain in the Wehrmacht. Kazantsev signed the Prague Manifesto to create the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia (Komitet osvobozhdeniya narodov Rossii, KONR) and took an active role in the creation of the movement of General Andrei Vlasov, with who he had close ties.³ From November 1944 to February 1945, he edited the newspaper “Volia Naroda” (“People’s Will”), published by the Russian Liberation Movement (Russkoe osvoboditelnoe dvizhenie, ROD).⁴

After the end of the war, he settled in Munich, where from 1957 to 1961 he led the Russian section of Radio Liberty. He published a book, “The Third Force”, with his memories of the struggle between the NTS and KONR during the war.⁵ Kazantsev died in 1963.

Alexandr Stepanovich Kazantsev
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