In late 1942, the Wehrmacht started forming what they called "national legions". Among others, the Idel-Ural legion was formed in Lager Jedlnia, General Government, consisting of prisoners of war belonging to the nations of the Volga basin. Since the majority of the legion were Volga Tatars, the Germans usually called it the Volga-Tatar Legion. The Wehrmacht began preparing the legionnaires for action against the Red Army. Cälil joined the Wehrmacht propaganda unit for the legion under the false name of Gumeroff. Cälil's group set out to wreck the National Socialist plans, to convince the men to use the weapons they would be supplied with against the National Socialists themselves. The members of the resistance group infiltrated the editorial board of the "Idel-Ural" newspaper the German command produced, and printed and circulated anti-Hitler leaflets among the legionnaires into esoteric action groups consisting of five men each. The first battalion of the Volga-Tatar Legion that was sent to the Eastern Front mutinied, shot all the German officers there, and defected to the Soviet partisans in Belarus.