| Russian Protective Corps | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Active | 1941–1945 |
| Allegiance |  Nazi Germany (1941–1944) |
| Branch | Wehrmacht |
| Type | Cavalry Infantry |
| Role | Anti-partisan operations |
| Size | 17,090 troops (total membership) 11,197 troops (maximum strength) |
| Engagements |
|
| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders | Mikhail Skorodumov Boris Shteifon † Anatoly Rogozhin |
The Russian Protective Corps (German: Russisches Schutzkorps, Russian: Русский охранный корпус, Serbian: Руски заштитни корпус / Ruski zaštitni korpus) was an armed force composed of anti-communist White Russian émigrés that was raised in the German occupied territory of Serbia during World War II. Commanded for almost its whole existence by Lieutenant General Boris Shteifon, it served primarily as a guard force for factories and mines between late 1941 and early 1944, initially as the "Separate Russian Corps" then Russian Factory Protective Group. It was incorporated into the Wehrmacht on 1 December 1942 and later clashed with the communist-led Yugoslav Partisans and briefly with the Chetniks. In late 1944, it fought against the Red Army during the Belgrade Offensive, later withdrawing to Bosnia and Slovenia as the German forces retreated from Yugoslavia and Greece. After Shteifon′s death in Zagreb, the Independent State of Croatia, on 30 April 1945, Russian Colonel Anatoly Rogozhin took over and led his troops farther north to surrender to the British in southern Austria. Unlike most other Russian formations that fought for Nazi Germany, Rogozhin and his men, who were not formally treated as Soviet citizens, were exempt from forced repatriation to the Soviet Union and were eventually set free and allowed to resettle in the West.