It was claimed by a newspaperman close to Oktan that he had been a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union prior to World War II, possibly as a propagandist or local functionary.

[1] This claim was also repeated in intelligence from Soviet partisans, which stated Oktan had been head of the Oryol Oblast education department prior to the outbreak of the war.

[2] According to a 1943 article in The New York Times, Oktan's nationality was unclear and his grasp of the Russian language was "doubtful.

"[3] This claim is in dispute with Dallin's paper, which describes Oktan as possessing significant oratory and journalistic skill.

According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Rech was among the most virulently antisemitic publications published within the German-occupied Soviet Union, and Oktan regularly expressed antisemitic views, in addition to anti-Armenian and anti-Georgian sentiment, primarily targeting Anastas Mikoyan, Joseph Stalin, and Sergo Ordzhonikidze.

He maintained consistent support from the Germans, and banned War and Peace from Oryol as a show of his pro-German position, and additionally said, "These days we don't need Pushkin and Lermontov.

In spring 1943, field marshal Günther von Kluge recommended Oktan as the sixth member of a proposed committee bringing together Russian collaborators, in addition to five local collaborationist leaders.

Oktan was additionally given permission in mid-April 1944 to recruit in Western Belorussia, and German reports noted that the Union deliberately eschewed a clear political position, a move Germany supported.

According to official figures (suggested by Dallin to be "vastly inflated"), membership reached 75,000 by June 1944, with the issue of restoring private ownership of land as the primary position of the Union.

[1] Simultaneously with the work of the Union, Oktan directed the "Russian Youth Movement," an organisation which participated actively in the Heuaktion, or kidnapping of children aged 10 to 14.

[1] Oktan continued to actively promote himself as a collaborationist leader to the war's end, continuing his lavish lifestyle in spite of the war's worsening state, and additionally unsuccessfully sought an alliance with Belarusian collaborators (in part due to German urging).

[4] Author John Loftus claimed in his book The Belarus Secret that Oktan was a naturalised United States citizen after the founding of the Office of Special Investigations in 1979, and that the OSI was pursuing his denaturalisation.

He was known to impress audiences with carefully-choreographed displays at dinners, with one account describing the course of events as such:[1] Oktan receives his guests in a tastefully-furnished living room.

[1] Oktan had fraught relations with other collaborators, particularly Bronislav Kaminski and the National Alliance of Russian Solidarists (NTS).

He repeatedly stated that 'Vlasovite ideals' were banned in areas under his control, and expressed the view that he could have exceeded Vlasov in terms of building a collaborationist military force.