Nikolai Grigorievich Nazarenko was a Don Cossack emigre leader who served as president of the World Federation of the Cossack National Liberation Movement of Cossackia and the Cossack American Republican National Federation.
35 Facts About Nikolai Nazarenko
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Nikolai Nazarenko grew up in Romania and subsequently enlisted in the Romanian Army.
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Nikolai Nazarenko was sent on an espionage mission for Romania into the Soviet Union in 1933, but was captured crossing the Dniester river at night and imprisoned.
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At the factory he worked in, a militia was recruited to fight for the Red Army, and Nikolai Nazarenko had enough knowledge of military matters to be given command with the rank of First Lieutenant.
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Nikolai Nazarenko subverted his workers' militia unit and persuaded them to fight for Germany instead.
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The fact that most of the men in the workers' militia were fellow Don Cossacks who had lost their land under the Soviet regime greatly assisted Nikolai Nazarenko with persuading his unit to switch sides.
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Nikolai Nazarenko met General Gustav von Wietersheim and insisted to him that his loyalties were to Germany.
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Nikolai Nazarenko argued that he wanted to overthrow the Soviet regime and he saw Operation Barbarossa as the beginning of the "liberation" of his people.
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Nikolai Nazarenko was given a German officer's peaked hat, which he altered by the removing the red, white and black roundle and replacing it with the blue and white of the Don Cossack Host.
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Nikolai Nazarenko followed the XIV Panzer corps to Rostov and was shortly transferred over to the 1st Panzer Army.
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On 14 October 1942, Nikolai Nazarenko attended Pokrov, the Orthodox feast honoring the Intercession of the Theotokos by the Virgin Mary with the Altman Pavlov.
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Nikolai Nazarenko seems to be one of the Cossack leaders to actually embrace the idea of "Cossackia".
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Nikolai Nazarenko later stated that Pannwitz wanted "the creation of an unified spirit" in the 1st Cossack Division and tried to encourage his officers to treat the Cossacks with respect.
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Nikolai Nazarenko served as a translator and an interrogator of POWS for the Wehrmacht and SS in Romania in 1944.
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In 1944 while living in Belgrade, Nikolai Nazarenko married the daughter of General Vyacheslav Naumenko, the ataman of the Kuban Cossack Host.
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Towards the end of World War II, Nikolai Nazarenko was in Berlin serving as the intelligence chief for the Cossack "government-in-exile" set up by Alfred Rosenberg and headed by Pyotr Krasnov.
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Nikolai Nazarenko was not repatriated by the Americans to the Soviets.
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From 1945 to 1949, Nikolai Nazarenko worked in Bavaria for the USArmy Counter-Intelligence Corps, being used as a translator and an investigator into possible Soviet agents living in the Displaced Persons camps.
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At some point, Nikolai Nazarenko became involved with the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations.
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Nikolai Nazarenko attended the conference, where he was listed as representing the Cossacks.
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ABN Correspondence described Nikolai Nazarenko as representing both "Cossackia" and the American Friends of the ABN at the 1969 conference.
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In 1974, Nikolai Nazarenko had given himself the rank of colonel and was listed as one of the leaders of the Captive Nations field committee in New York state, where according to Nixon's papers, his address was 21 S Weatern Highway, Blauvelt, New York.
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Nikolai Nazarenko noted that despite the stated purpose of the council to improve outreach by the Republican Party to ethnic minorities that the council never had Jewish and Afro-American members.
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In 1972, Nikolai Nazarenko converted the Cossack War Veterans' Association into the World Federation of the Cossack National Liberation Movement of Cossackia.
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Nikolai Nazarenko took part in Captive Nations day parades in his Cossack uniform and as the president of the Cossack American Republican National Federation was active in Republican politics.
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On 21 July 1984, Nikolai Nazarenko, gave a speech at a diner for the Captive Nations Committee in New York.
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Nikolai Nazarenko began by praising those who fought for Nazi Germany in the Ostlegionen and the Waffen-SS as heroes.
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On 17 May 1985, Nikolai Nazarenko attended a speech given by President Ronald Reagan at a meeting of the Republican Heritage Groups Council at the Omni Shoreham Hotel representing the Cossack American Republican National Federation.
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The next day, Nikolai Nazarenko was interviewed by the American journalist Russ Bellant.
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In common with many other Cossack emigres, Nikolai Nazarenko insisted the Cossacks were a distinctive nation who were not Russians despite speaking Russian.
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Nikolai Nazarenko told Bellant that Jews were his "ideological enemies", claiming that Jews invented Communism to oppress Gentiles, and that he was proud to have fought for Nazi Germany.
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Nikolai Nazarenko told Bellant that he was in contact with "patriotic" publications such as Thunderbolt, The Spotlight and Instauration, submitting them articles.
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Nikolai Nazarenko lived comfortably on a veteran's pension provided by the West German government.
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In late 1988, Nikolai Nazarenko was expelled from the GOP together with 7 other ethnic organizers with Nazi ties.
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However, Nikolai Nazarenko was allowed to remain a member of the Republican Heritage Groups Council, which in effect allowed to retain his Republican party membership.