About 1 million inhabitants of the Soviet Union collaborated with the Nazis. This is a remarkable fact, because the Nazis, thanks to their racial policy, could not really be considered allies. And yet it happened. The aversion to Bolshevism and the hope for new freedom opened up a horizon in which collaboration between the Soviet peoples and the Germans seemed to offer a better alternative than the ‘Soviet paradise’. Historical oppression and bloody experiences played a major role in this, especially among the Ukrainian, Crimean and Caucasian peoples.