The Russian Prisoners of War in World War I as a Humanitarian Issue

2020 ◽  
pp. 174-188
Author(s):  
Sergey Ippolitov
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Prisoners Of War ◽  
Humanitarian Assistance ◽  
Special Role ◽  
World War ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Cultural Aspects ◽  
In Captivity

The tragedy occurred to the prisoners of war in World War I had the scale of a humanitarian disaster. Millions of people belonged to different nationalities lived under the hardest physical and psychological living conditions. The study devoted to this page of world history methodologically comprises an intersection of disciplines: it is necessary to study and comprehend mental, legal, economic, cultural aspects of the humanitarian crisis which had significant effect on the course of political processes in Europe. The article studies activities of government and public organizations involved in humanitarian assistance to the Russian prisoners of war who were in the European camps. In this case a special role was played by a spiritual and cultural support of the compatriots in captivity. Acute «cultural hunger» in the prisoners of war camps was intended to be filled by the Russian book, which became a significant factor that impeded the prisoners’ marginalization and denationalization. The growth of nationalism in a public discourse of different countries around the world which were involved in isolation and marginalization of ethnic minorities and diasporas, their loss of national and cultural identity, customs and language make the study of the historical analogies connected with the fate of prisoners of war in World War I appropriate and of current interest. The history of preservation by the Russian people in captivity and exile their own cultural identity allows the author to predict the course of these processes at the present stage, as well as to develop state policy of support provided to compatriots abroad.

Urban Population of the Russian Periphery in the Days of the First World War: Special Considerations for Identifying Documents on Issues of Public Sentiment and Behavioral Practices

2018 ◽  
pp. 984-995
Author(s):  
Ekaterina Yu. Semenova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Prisoners Of War ◽  
World War ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
Record Keeping ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Police Supervisors ◽  
Regional Specificity ◽  
And Behavior

The article offers a systematization of archival sources on formation and development of public moods and behavioral practices of the rear zone population of the Russian periphery in the days of World War I. The following groups of archival sources have been identified: laws and regulations of central and local authorities (circulars, resolutions of ministries and departments, governors, heads of gubernia gendarme departments, commissars of the Provisional Government, orders of garrison commanders); record keeping materials (reports of gendarmerie officials, governors, uezd police officers, polizeimeisters, and police supervisors (nadzirateli); reports of self-government institutions; censorship officers reports; reports and reviews of various committees, meetings, societies, cultural and educational institutions); personal provenance sources (letters, memoirs, anonymous and named complaints and police information); statistical and reference materials. This complex of sources allows to characterize public sentiments and behavioral practices of provincial towns citizens in the wartime: their perception of reality in the changing multifaceted demographic situation; attitudes towards national and confessional groups and their representatives; their reaction to veterans, wounded, prisoners of war, recruits, personnel of rear garrisons, and refugees; leisure possibilities; cultural entertainment and its impact on mood and behavior of citizens; their attitude towards authority and its representatives; impact of the opposition on political activities and dissatisfaction of citizens; organization of supply and its influence on socio-political processes in the urban environment; transformation of official national paradigm. The case-study of the Volga region registers difficulties in identification of sources in the fonds of regional and central archives, which pertain to the subject. The regional specificity in structure and content of archival materials is demonstrated.

Transition of the Rusins of Austria-Hungary to the bosom of Orthodoxy in the end of 19th - beginning of 20th century: Lost perspective for Russia

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (10-4) ◽  
pp. 196-205
Author(s):  
Vadim Mikhailov ◽  
Konstantin Losev
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Russian Empire ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
World War ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The Military ◽  
Church Policy

The article is devoted to the issue of Church policy in relation to the Rusyn population of Austria-Hungary and the Russian Empire. In the second half of the 19th century, the policy of the Austro-Hungarian administration towards the Rusyn Uniate population of the Empire underwent changes. Russia’s victories in the wars of 1849 and 1877-1878 aroused the desire of the educated part of the Rusyns to return to the bosom of the Orthodox Church. Nevertheless, even during the World War I, when the Russian army captured part of the territories inhabited by Rusyns, the military and officials of the Russian Empire were too cautious about the issue of converting Uniates to Orthodoxy, which had obvious negative consequences both for the Rusyns, who were forced to choose a Ukrainophile orientation to protect their national and cultural identity, and for the future of Russia as the leader of the Slavic and Orthodox world.

The Protection of Women in International Humanitarian Law

1985 ◽  
Vol 25 (249) ◽  
pp. 337-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Françoise Krill
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Geneva Convention ◽  
Legal Protection ◽  
Prisoners Of War ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
World War ◽  
The Hague ◽  
Special Protection

Since the number of women who actually participated in war was insignificant until the outbreak of World War I, the need for special protection for them was not felt prior to that time. This does not imply however that women had previously lacked any protection. From the birth of international humanitarian law, they had had the same general legal protection as men. If they were wounded, women were protected by the provisions of the 1864 Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field; if they became prisoners of war, they benefited from the Regulations annexed to the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 on the Laws and Customs of War on Land.

scholarly journals The heroes’ children: Rescuing the Great War’s orphans

2021 ◽  
pp. 161189442199268
Author(s):  
Friederike Kind-Kovács
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Child Victims ◽  
World War ◽  
The Public ◽  
Christian Morality ◽  
New Public ◽  
War Orphans ◽  
War Effort ◽  
Hungarian State

World War I and its aftermath produced a particularly vulnerable group of child victims: war orphans. This group included children whose fathers had fallen in battle, who had disappeared, or who had not (yet) returned home. Most of Europe’s war and postwar societies witnessed the massive presence of these child victims, and responded in various ways to rescue them and secure their future survival. This article offers an exploration of the ways in which the Hungarian part of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, and then later the post-imperial Hungarian state, became invested in providing care and relief to Hungarian war orphans. In contrast to other groups of child victims, whose parents were blamed for neglecting their parental duties, war orphans as the offspring of ‘war heroes’ profited from the public appreciation of their fathers’ sacrifice for the war effort and the Hungarian nation. The public discourse in the contemporary Hungarian media offers a glimpse into the emergence of a new public visibility of these child victims and of a new recognition of the societal obligation to care for them. Exploring World War I and its aftermath as a telling example of political transformation in the 20th century, the article showcases how war orphans were taken to personify essential notions of war- and postwar destruction, while also capturing visions of postwar recovery. It furthermore examines how welfare discourses and relief practices for Hungary’s war orphans were embedded in contemporary gender norms, notions of proper Christian morality and ethnic nationalism. On this basis, the article assesses the ways in which the case of Hungary’s war orphans not only mirrors the professionalization but also the fundamental transformation of child welfare in the aftermath of World War I.

Life conditions of Turkish prisoners on nargin island during the first world war

2021 ◽  
Vol 69 (08) ◽  
pp. 7-14
Author(s):  
Джамиля Яшар гызы Рустамова ◽  
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Caspian Sea ◽  
First World War ◽  
Prisoners Of War ◽  
World War ◽  
The Caspian Sea ◽  
The Caucasus ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The Right ◽  
First World

The article is dedicated to the matter of Turkish prisoners on the Nargin Island in the Caspian Sea during the First World War. According to approximate computations, there were about 50-60 thousand people of Turkish captives in Russia. Some of them were sent to Baku because of the close location to the Caucasus Front and from there they were sent to the Nargin Island in the Caspian Sea. As time showed it was not the right choise. The Island had no decent conditions for living and turned the life of prisoners into the hell camp. Hastily built barracks contravene meet elementary standards, were poorly heated and by the end of the war they were not heated at all, water supply was unsatisfactory, sometimes water was not brought to the prisoner's several days. Bread was given in 100 grams per person per day, and then this rate redused by half. Knowing the plight of the prisoners, many citizens of Baku as well as the Baku Muslim Charitable Society and other charitable societies provided moral and material support to prisoners, they often went to the camp, brought food, clothes, medicines Key words: World War I, prisoners of war, Nargin Island, refugees, incarceration conditions, starvation, charity

Further Regional Studies

War Epidemics ◽  
2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Smallman-Raynor ◽  
Andrew Cliff
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
World War I ◽  
South African ◽  
Geographical Location ◽  
Prisoners Of War ◽  
World War ◽  
The South ◽  
South African War ◽  
Forced Labour ◽  
Study Sites

In Chapters 7 to 11, we have examined a series of recurring themes in the geography of war and disease since 1850 through regional lenses. In this chapter, we conclude our regional–thematic survey by illustrating further prominent themes which, either because of their subject-matter or because of their geographical location, were beyond the immediate scope of the foregoing chapters. In selecting regional case studies for this chapter, we concentrate on wars which have not been examined in depth to this point (the South African War and the Cuban Insurrection) or which, on account of their magnitude and extent, merit examination beyond that afforded in previous sections (World War I and World War II). Four principal issues are addressed: (1) Africa: population reconcentration and disease (Section 12.2), illustrated with reference to civilian concentration camps in the South African War, 1899–1902; (2) Americas: peace, war, and epidemiological integration (Section 12.3), illustrated with reference to the civil settlement system of Cuba, 1888–1902; (3) Asia: prisoners of war, forced labour, and disease (Section 12.4), illustrated with reference to Allied prisoners on the line of the Burma–Thailand Railway, 1942–4; (4) Europe: civilian epidemics and the world wars (Section 12.5), illustrated with reference to the spread of a series of diseases in the civil population of Europe during, and after, the hostilities of 1914–18 and 1939–45. As before, the study sites in (1) to (4) span a broad range of epidemiological environments, from the cool temperate latitudes of northern Europe, through the tropical island and jungle environments of the Caribbean and Southeast Asia, to the warm temperate and subtropical savannah lands of the South African Veld. Diseases have been sampled to reflect this epidemiological range. The South African War (1899–1902) has been described as the last of the ‘typhoid campaigns’ (Curtin, 1998)—a closing chapter on the predominance of disease over battle as a cause of death among soldiers (Pakenham, 1979: 382). From the military perspective, typhoid was indeed the major health issue of the war, accounting for a reported 8,020 deaths in the British Army (Simpson, 1911: 57).

The Political History of American Food Aid

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry Riley
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
World War I ◽  
Vietnam War ◽  
Political Support ◽  
Food Aid ◽  
The Political ◽  
World War ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Agriculture Sector ◽  
History Of

This book discusses the 220-year history of the political and humanitarian uses of American food as a tool of both foreign and domestic policy. During these years, food aid has been used as a weapon against the expansion of bolshevism after World War I and communism after World War II, a cudgel to force policy changes by recalcitrant recipient governments, a method for balancing disputes between Israel and Egypt, a backdoor means of increasing military aid to Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War, a signal of support to friendly governments, and a resource to help achieve economic development in food-insecure countries. At home, international food aid has, at times, been used to dump troublesome food surpluses abroad and has served politicians as a tool to secure the votes of farming constituents and the political support of agriculture-sector lobbyists, commodity traders, transporters, and shippers. Most important in the minds of many, it has been the most visible—and most popular—means of providing humanitarian aid to tens of millions of hungry men, women, and children confronted, on distant shores, by war, terrorism, and natural cataclysms and the resulting threat—if not the reality—of famine and death. The book investigates the little-known, not well-understood, and often highly contentious political processes that have converted fields of grains, crops of pulses, and herds of livestock into the tools of U.S. government policy.

scholarly journals Mixed Marriages in Late Nineteenth to Early Twentieth Century: Comparing Russia and Norway

2020 ◽  
pp. 036319902094521
Author(s):  
Elena Glavatskaya ◽  
Gunnar Thorvaldsen ◽  
Iulia Borovik ◽  
Elizaveta Zabolotnykh
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Religious Affiliation ◽  
Prisoners Of War ◽  
Middle Urals ◽  
Equal Rights ◽  
World War ◽  
Industrial City ◽  
Mixed Marriages ◽  
New Religions

This article compares interethnic and interreligious marriages in Russia and Norway during the decades around 1900. State churches dominated religious life in both countries with over 90 percent of the population but both were losing influence during the period we focus on—rapidly in Russia after the 1917 Revolution. The part on Norway employs nominative and aggregate census material which from 1865 asked questions about religious affiliation, while the Russian case study utilizes the database of church microdata being built for Ekaterinburg—a railway hub and an industrial city in the Middle Urals, in Asia—in addition to census aggregates. Our main conclusion is that religion was a stronger regulator of intermarriage than ethnicity. Religious intermarriage was unusual in Ekaterinburg, even if official regulations were softened by the State over time—the exception is during World War I, when there was a deficit of young, Russian men at home and influx of refugees and Austro-Hungarian Prisoners of War (mostly Catholics and Lutherans). The situation was also affected by the 1917 Revolution creating equal rights for all religious denominations. The relatively few religious intermarriages in Norway were mostly between members of different Protestant congregations—nonmembers being the only group who often outmarried. We conclude that representatives of ethnic minorities and new religions seldom outmarry when religion was important for maintaining their identity.

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