Boris Smyslovsky

Towards the end of the war Germany upgraded its Russian volunteers in the war effort, and the army led by Smyslovsky was eventually elevated to the 1st Russian National Army, i.e. the status of an independent Axis army, on 10 March 1945. By April 1945, Smyslovsky had moved his fighters to Feldkirch where he met Grand Duke Vladimir Cyrillovich, the Romanov claimant to the Russian Imperial Crown. The whittled-down army of 462 men, 30 women, and 2 children then moved into neutral Liechtenstein[2] on 2 May 1945, the Grand Duke, however, decided to stay in the US occupied zone in Austria because neither Liechtenstein nor Switzerland would issue him a visa.[3][4] The Russians were cared for by the Liechtenstein Red Cross. On 16 August 1945, a Soviet delegation came to Liechtenstein in an attempt to repatriate the Russians. Homesick and subject to cajoling and menacing, about 200 of the group agreed to return. They departed in a train to Vienna and nothing was ever heard of them again.[4] The remainder stayed in Liechtenstein for another year, resisting with support of Liechtenstein further pressure by the Soviet government to participate in the repatriation program. Eventually the government of Argentina offered asylum, and about 100 people left. Smyslovsky was visited by Allen Dulles and other Western military experts, to utilise his expertise regarding the Soviet Union, and handed information over to Reinhard Gehlen's espionage system .

According to Alexander Frick, Prime Minister of Liechtenstein, the Russians were at no point in danger of being extradited, and the local population fully supported the government in providing asylum to the Russians.[4] The small population of the country (12,141 in 1945) supported the émigrés (4% of the population) at a rate of 30,000 Swiss francs per month for two years, and paid their costs to move to Argentina; they did not know that these costs were later to be reimbursed by Germany. Liechtenstein was the only country that routinely refused requests by Soviet authorities for the extradition of Soviet citizens suspected of treasonous activities and/or war crimes during World War II. The Liechtenstein government did not obstruct individuals who agreed voluntarily to return to the Soviet Union.[4] Members of the Russian National Army who chose to return to the USSR were removed from trains en route and summarily executed by Soviet authorities, in Hungary.