Some of them supported the Soviet Union, i.e Alexander Kerensky, the leader of the provisional government which the Bolsheviks overthrew, offered his support to the Communist government during WW2.

Others however, supported the Nazis, some of them, like Anatoli Ivanovich Rogozhin and Pyotr Krasnov, helped to form ethnic units made up of men from the former Russian empire to fight on the Nazi side.