The situation of Rusin and other Slavic prisoners of war in 1916-1917 (a case study of Kamyshin State Forest Nursery)

The paper analyses archival documents from the State Archive of Volgograd Region and the State Archive of Russian Federation to investigate the situation of Rusin and other Slavic prisoners of war in Russia in 1916-1917 and their work for agricultural enterprises. Particular attention is paid to the regional component - the conditions in which Slavic prisoners of war lived at the Kamyshin state nursery, Kamyshin district, Saratov province. The author studies the living conditions and working environment of prisoners of war to find out that they could suffer severe punishment and their cheap labour was sometimes used even on weekends and holidays. The ethnic composition of prisoners can hardly be traced due to the inaccurate census of prisoners of war and other documents. The Kamyshin forest nursery, like other enterprises, housed representatives of many nations - Rusins, Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, Jews, Germans and Magyars, who lived and worked together. The research demonstrates the influence of Russian political and economic processes on the regional situation with prisoners of war and their number in the camps and agricultural enterprises - Kamyshin and Kotovsky nurseries. The author also focuses on how the plight of the Rusins, Czechs and Slovaks rallied them and what role the role of prisoners of war played in the activities of Czechoslovak national organizations and Czechoslovak national movement in Russia. He sheds light on the interrelation of the position of Slavic prisoners of war, their political activity and the growing national movement for the independent states.

Keywords

Authors

References