Organisations of Rusinian Prisoners of War in Siberia and Authority: A Conflict of Interests (1918-1919)

During WWI, prisoners of war representing different states and nations were held in concentration camps in Siberia. The Provisional Siberian Government, Komuch (The Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly) and the Russian Government of A.V. Kolchak applied the principle of “ethnicization” and were dividing the prisoners of war into “allied” (Slavs and others) and “hostile” (Germans, Magyars, etc.), following the policy pursued by Russian authorities since the beginning of the war. The Slavic and Romanesque prisoners of war were held in special national camps with the right to enter national armies. However, national organisations not only formed military units, but also excersised the consular functions to represent prisoners of war, refugees and displaced peasants, which entailed conflicts among prisoners of war due to their different state and national-political identification. There was a struggle for the right to represent the interests of the natives of Subcarpathian Rus between the Central Carpathians Council (CCC), which aligned with Russia and therefore was supported by the Kolchak administration, and, on the other hand, the Omsk Branch of the Galician-Bukovinian Committee of Assisting War Victims, which assisted to the prisoners of war from Galicia and Bukovina and formed Ukrainian military units. As a result, the Galician-Bukovinian Committee was disbanded, while the CCC was granted the “exclusive right” to register the natives of Subcarpathian Rus. They could also form military units for the Kolchak army and represent the interests of Carpathians at the Paris Conference. Thus, the policy of “ethnicization” and division of prisoners of war into “hostile” and “allied” resulted in a split among the prisoners of war and undermined the unity of AntiBolshevik front and decreased the chances to achieve the strategic goal of the Russian governments, which was the victory over Bolshevism and reestablishment of the one and undivided Russia.

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