Strik-Strikfeldt was born in Riga, Latvia (then part of the Russian Empire), and attended the Nicholas Cavalry College [ru] in St. Petersburg.

He attended the centenary celebrations of the Battle of Borodino in 1912, and during World War I volunteered to fight as an officer in the Imperial Russian Army against Germany.

Over July and August 1942 Strik-Strikfeldt met and interviewed ex-Communist and former Soviet Army General Andrey Vlasov in a German PoW camp in Vinnitsa.

In September 1942 Strik-Strikfeldt was formally seconded to the OKW Propaganda Department office in Berlin as a Betreuer ("Confidante") responsible for Vlasov.

Strik-Strikfeldt also persuaded Vlasov to publish, in March 1943, his article "Why I took up the struggle against Bolshevism" (a bitter attack on the Soviet system) and in April 1943, his pamphlet on the nationalities/minorities issue within Russia and Europe.

When many Russian Hiwi's were withdrawn from the Eastern Front and sent to work on fortifications in the West, Dabendorf sent propagandists to raise morale and soothe troubled spirits.

"[6] In the spring of 1944 Strik-Strikfeldt was introduced to SS-Standartenführer Gunter d'Alquen, the Chief Editor of the SS weekly newspaper, Das Schwarze Korps ("The Black Corps"), and commander of the SS-Standarte Kurt Eggers.

Arlt informed Strik-Strikfeldt that the Waffen-SS intended to make greater use of Soviet and Eastern European minorities under SS auspices.

Himmler had been placed in command of the Ersatzheer ("Replacement Army") following the 20 July plot, and was therefore in a position to supply Dabendorf with military equipment and training, and even offered vague political concessions.

Returning to Berlin in a train, Strik-Strikfeldt shared a sleeper with Dr. Felix Kersten (Himmler's personal masseur and also a Baltic German) who claimed to have been supporting their "good cause".

There was an enthusiastic reception for Strik-Strikfeldt and Vlasov at Dabendorf and work began immediately to prepare the ill-fated Manifesto of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia.

Late in 1944 Strik-Strikfeldt met the Cossack White Army-era General Pyotr Krasnov and tried to convince him to join Vlasov but to no avail.

Strik-Strikfeldt tried to squirm out of the offer and Gehlen arranged for him to take sick leave in Pomerania where he wrote up a rough draft history of the Vlasov movement that would later serve as the basis for his 1970 book "Gegen Stalin und Hitler.

In December 1944 one of Gehlen's officers visited Strik-Strikfeldt and asked him to help accommodate units of the Russian Liberation Army in the Posen area.