Escape from captivity in the First World War. The situation of Russian prisoners of war during the First World War: an essay on everyday reality

We are frightened by the fall of huge meteorites to Earth, terrible volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis. Each of these cataclysms can be accompanied by great loss of life and destruction. But even taken together, these hypothetical cataclysms will not be able to compete with the victims and destruction that took place in the first half of the 20th century. At that time, our planet was shaken by two global military disasters. They claimed the lives of tens of millions of people, and it was not individual cities, islands and regions that were subject to destruction, but entire countries.

Military catastrophes were called the First and Second World Wars. They were accompanied not only by an endless series of human victims, but also by an uncountable number of broken destinies. Children lost their parents, and parents lost their children, wives abandoned their armless and legless husbands who returned from the war, husbands found girlfriends at the front and abandoned their wives. Terrible wars brought people one continuous grief. And among all this global nightmare, the prisoners found themselves in the most favorable situation.

Captured Russian soldiers

However, here it must be understood that captivity in World War I was not much like captivity in World War II. The first was more humane, as it was based on the decisions of the first and second Hague conventions that took place in 1899 and 1907. These conventions reflected the developed international legal norms and principles concerning the laws and customs of war. But the point is not even in their development, but in the fact that all these norms and principles were strictly observed.

In 1929, the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War was held. It significantly improved the decisions of the Hague Conventions, as it was based on the experience of the First World War. In Geneva, such issues as capture, evacuation to the rear, the maintenance of prisoners of war in camps, their work, external relations, relations with the winners, and the end of captivity were more clearly regulated.

However, during the Second World War, some humane decisions were either not respected at all or were observed partially. This was especially true of Soviet prisoners of war who fell into German captivity during the Great Patriotic War.

The 1929 Geneva Convention prohibited reprisals and collective punishment of prisoners of war. The work of prisoners of war was strictly regulated. Representatives were discussed, whose duties included monitoring the maintenance of those who were captured. With regard to Soviet officers and soldiers, none of this was observed.

But let's not focus our attention on the Second World War, since a lot is known about it. Let's talk about what was a prisoner in the First World War. There is much less information about the global military conflict of 1914-1918 than about the conflict of 1939-1945, and the available data are contradictory. The point here is that each country that participated in the war compiled its own reports and operated with its own figures. And they largely did not coincide with the reports and figures of other countries.

More or less accurate is the figure characterizing the total number of prisoners of war. There were about 8 million of them. Of these, there are about 2.4 million officers and soldiers of the Russian Empire. About a million German soldiers were taken prisoner. In total, the Entente countries lost 4 million people as prisoners. And the Central Powers, led by Germany, have 3.5 million troops.

These masses of people were kept in POW camps. And what were the conditions of detention in such camps? German and Austro-Hungarian prisoners of war were kept on the territory of the Russian Empire in quite tolerable conditions. After the end of the war, they returned home without resentment against the royal power. The soldiers lived in spacious barracks, and the officers had separate quarters. In addition, each officer relied on a batman. He won’t clean his own boots and go to the stall for groceries.

Russian soldiers in German captivity

And what can be said about the content of Russian prisoners of war in Germany and Austria-Hungary? The same. Camp life was not a burden for prisoners of war. The rank and file regularly received a discharge to a nearby town. And so that the prisoner did not escape, the bail of the three soldiers remaining in the camp was practiced. If an irresponsible soldier runs away, then his comrades will be put in a punishment cell for five days and all soldiers in the camp will be banned from dismissal. Therefore, no one ran away, realizing that he would let everyone else down.

And what was the situation with the officers of the Russian army? They lived quite well. They were often visited by suppliers of various goods and services. Even animals were offered to have - parrots, white mice, dogs, cats. And one Russian officer, suffering from idleness, wanted his wife to come to him as a prisoner. And he turned with a report to the head of the prisoner of war camp: I want a wife.

The head of the camp wrote a written refusal: it is not supposed to keep a wife in the camp. At the same time, it was written in the refusal that the officer could appeal this decision to the military commandant of the city. At that time, gentlemen officers spoke different foreign languages, and therefore the petitioner wrote a report addressed to the commandant of the city. He again received a refusal with an addition that he has the right to appeal this decision to the instance.

In a word, the stubborn Russian officer got to the Minister of War: what kind of order is this in the German camps, you can’t even invite your lawful wife to yourself. The Minister of War refused, but added that the captured officer could appeal this decision to a higher authority, that is, apply in writing to the Kaiser himself. What to do? The poor man had to turn to the Kaiser. And he again refused in writing: it is not allowed for captured officers to live in camps with their wives, and he put his signature. This is not a joke, but a real fact that characterizes captivity in the First World War.

As for layoffs, the officers were released from the camps on parole that they would not run away. You can run away, but then you can’t give an honest word. Everyone understood this and went on dismissal without hindrance. This situation continued until the captured Lieutenant of the Life Guards Semyonovsky Regiment Mikhail Tukhachevsky fled to Switzerland, breaking the officer's word. After that, they stopped believing the word of the Russian officer. The captured gentlemen were forbidden to leave the camps throughout Germany and Austria-Hungary.

As already mentioned, 2.4 million Russian prisoners of war were held captive by the Central Powers. All of them had to be fed, watered and clothed. But try to feed and drink such an abyss of people. Therefore, the warring countries agreed among themselves on postal communication. Fighting is going on at the fronts, shells are flying, bullets are whistling, and the post office is working, and she doesn’t care about anything. And if so, then the prisoners received parcels, money orders, letters. And they could send the same to their homeland. Even the photo was sent in the fashion of those times: in military uniform near the bedside table in full growth against the backdrop of a written landscape with columns, swans and the moon.

But do not think that captivity in the First World War was a resort. Not at all. In accordance with the 6th article of the Hague Convention of 1907, states had every right to involve prisoners of war in work in accordance with their abilities. The only exceptions were officers. The workers were paid salaries, while a person could set aside part of the earned amount in order to receive the accumulated money upon release.

Russian soldiers return home from German captivity

In the first half of 1915, German industry began to face a shortage of workers. Therefore, prisoners of war began to be involved in various works in places of their permanent detention. They were paid little, if translated into modern money, then no more than 300-400 rubles a day. Money for enhanced nutrition and additional maintenance was deducted from the amount earned. The working day lasted 10-12 hours.

In 1916, up to 40% of Russian prisoners of war were involved in various jobs. In 1917, 80% of captured soldiers were already working for German industry. It was difficult for those who worked in the frontline zones. There, from time to time, there were conflicts with participants in the hostilities.

The Russian army for the most part consisted of peasants called up from the villages, and therefore most of the prisoners of war worked in agricultural work. Only 20% of the prisoners worked in industry. And officers and disabled people did not work at all. At the same time, it should be noted that the camp regime every year became softer and softer. In 1917, captured Russian soldiers were already more like civilian workers, rather than suffering prisoners of war.

It has become common practice to spend the night with employers instead of in the camp, wear civilian clothes, have affairs with local women, and even get married. But after the signing of the Brest Peace on March 3, 1918, the Russian prisoners were not released from the camps. They continued to hunchback on former enemies, only their salaries were noticeably increased. The mass return of prisoners of war to Soviet Russia began in 1922, when diplomatic relations were established with Germany.

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World War I prisoners of war in Siberia

Historical and legal aspects of the problem

The most accurate are the data of the Central Commission for the Affairs of Prisoners of War and Refugees - Tsentrobezh, created in accordance with the decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR of 01.01.01 and then transformed into Tsentroevak. At the disposal of Tsentrobezh came all the new materials of the Russian authorities involved in the registration of prisoners of war. According to the final data of Tsentrobezh, and then Tsentroevak, summed up by the years, the total number of prisoners of war belonging to the armies of the Central Powers and registered on the territory of Russia was about 2 people.

In order to present the national composition of prisoners of war, it should be noted that during the First World War, among those on active military service in the armed forces of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, about 25% were Austrians and Germans, 23% were Hungarians, 13% were Czechs, 4% - Slovaks, 9% - Serbs and Croats, 2% - Slovenes, 3% - Ukrainians, 7% - Romanians and 1% - Italians.

Placement of prisoners of war by provinces and rules for their distribution

As already mentioned, according to the Russian General Staff, over 2 million soldiers and officers from Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey ended up in the vastness from the Dnieper to the Pacific Ocean. "Guided by considerations of a military and political nature, the tsarist administration intended to place prisoners in places remote from administrative and economic centers." As the Yenisei Thought newspaper reported in one of the April issues of 1915, only Krasnoyarsk got a man, Kansk, Achinsk - 2,300. But besides the Yenisei province, there were many other places where involuntary prisoners were sent. This is the Urals, and Turkestan, and, of course, all of Siberia and the Far East. Here are a few figures taken from a unique publication - the Siberian Soviet Encyclopedia, which show how many prisoners of war ended up in the vast territory from the Ural Mountains to Primorye: Tobolsk - 5,000 people, Tyumen and Kurgan - the same number, Chelyabinsk - 1,200, Omsk -, Novonikolaevsk -, Barnaul - 2,500, Ust - Kamenogorsk - 1,000, Tomsk - 5,200, Biysk - 3,000, Irkutsk, Nizhneudinsk - 2,200, Troitskoslavsk - 6,700, Verkhneudinsk - 8,500, Berezovka (special military town) -, Chita -, Sretensk -, Nerchinsk - 2,500, Dauria -, Nikolsk-Ussuriysky -, Spasskoye - 8,000, Blagoveshchensk - 5,000, Shkotovo - 3,200, Razdolnoye - 8,300, Krasnaya Rechka - 900, Khabarovsk - 5,000 Moreover, the number of prisoners of war was constantly increasing and, for example, in Krasnoyarsk, by 1916, it had already reached one person.

In the ever-increasing number of prisoners, tsarism saw a source of cheap labor force capable of replacing the workers and peasants of Russia who were called up to the active army. Sharing his delight with the tsarina about the next message he received “On the Capture of Thousands of Enemies”, Nicholas II wrote: “How many new hands to work in our fields and factories!”. But if it was originally planned to place prisoners mainly beyond the Urals, then pretty soon "the arrival of huge masses of prisoners and the lack of labor prompted the tsarist government already in 1915 to begin placing prisoners throughout the country."

The Germans, Austrians and Hungarians were considered less reliable than the captured Slavic nationalities and Romanians, so the tsarist authorities preferred to place them mainly beyond the Urals, while the captured Slavs and Romanians were kept in the European part of Russia. Numerous camps were located in European Russia (from 2,000 subhumans), in Siberia - larger ones, in which pre-war prisoners were simultaneously kept.

In relation to the prisoners of war of the Slavs, Russia pursued a special policy. The tsarist government, of course, could not ignore the sympathetic mood of the Russian public towards the captured representatives of the fraternal peoples, the influence of the Czechoslovak community and its own geopolitical interests. Since the prisoners of war Czechs and Slovaks were considered trustworthy, the Ministry of War assumed the creation of military formations from them as part of the Russian army. However, the prisoners, only recently snatched from the bloody battles, did not want to return to duty at all, especially under a false flag. Therefore, the position of Czechoslovak prisoners of war in Russia was the most unenviable. Unreliable Germans and Magyars were sent to Siberia and Turkestan, while Czechoslovaks and other Slavs were left in the center of Russia, where they had to do hard work in the worst conditions. And since it was noticed that the worse the conditions were, the more volunteers were enrolled in the Czechoslovak troops, the conditions of detention and labor of Slavic prisoners of war began to worsen as much as possible. As a result, thousands of prisoners died from typhus, scurvy and starvation, and were constantly subjected to cruel punishments and beatings. The result of such "agitation" was that the captured Czechoslovaks subsequently began to be recorded everywhere as Germans or Magyars, who were not touched by anyone.

“In total, in Russia by 1917 there were more than 400 prisoner-of-war camps, including 15 in the Petrograd Military District, 128 in Moscow, 113 in Kazan, 30 in Irkutsk, and 28 in Omsk.”

According to Art. 50 of the Regulations "On prisoners of war", the main management of all prisoners of war on the territory of the Empire belonged to the War Ministry. The civil authorities were obliged to provide all possible assistance to the military authorities.

The placement and distribution of prisoners of war was also carried out on the basis of the Regulations "On prisoners of war." From the location of the active troops, prisoners of war formed in parties were sent to assembly points, where they were under the supervision of district military commanders until they were sent to their destination for work (Articles 25-28 of the Regulations). At each collection point created under the administration of the county chief, special alphabetical lists were kept, in which prisoners of war arriving at collection points were entered, and the lists also indicated the places where prisoners of war would be sent from the assembly point.

Parties of prisoners of war were formed and sent taking into account the rank of prisoners (for example, senior officers were placed in cars of 1 and 2 classes (art. 38-41); while the teams were divided into platoons, semi-companies, companies, and even larger units, and to command them officers were appointed from among the prisoners (Article 54 of the Regulations "On Prisoners of War").

On the ground, prisoners of war were to be accommodated in free barracks, in the absence of such - in private houses, without fail in the barracks, guided by the Charter on Zemsky Duties (Articles 463 and 532 - in relation to meeting the general requirements for residential premises); officers who gave an obligation on parole that they would not be removed outside the designated area were given the right to live in private apartments in the area where the unit was located (Articles 56, 58 of the Regulations on prisoners of war).

For comparison, let us briefly consider the situation of Russian prisoners of war in Germany and its allied states. In total, 6 million people were prisoners of war in Germany during the First World War. About 3.8 million of them were prisoners of war and civilian internees from Russia.

It should be noted that initially the labor of prisoners of war in Germany was not planned to be widely used, especially in industry and agriculture, due to the fact that there was unemployment in Germany, which remained on a fairly large scale even after the outbreak of war. It was only at the beginning of 1915 that a shortage of labor began to be felt. Therefore, already in December 1914, most of the prisoners of war were transferred to the workers' teams (Arbeitskommando) and only a few of them remained in the camps. Russian prisoners of war were used mainly in agriculture and in hard work, for example, in mines. Naturally, prisoners of war regularly made attempts to escape. In case of failure of such attempts, the prisoners were returned not to the work teams, but to the camps, which meant a deterioration in their situation. To prevent this from happening, special and penal camps were created in the rear zones and regions of the Reich, where prisoners of war were subjected to a strict regime and were forced to do the most difficult work. In cases of refusal to perform work, prisoners were put on bread and water, and in front-line and front-line areas, prisoners of war were arrested, tied to a pole and deprived of food. Such data are provided by the German researcher Iris Lenzen.

Russian scientists present much darker facts. In Austria-Hungary in 1917, "physically working" citizens were given 140 g of cornmeal per day, not engaged in physical labor - about 80 g, soldiers - 1 kg of bread for three, prisoners of war - for four, in connection with which some of the prisoners died from exhaustion, not reaching the rear. In Germany, the situation was no better. The prisoners received 200 g of bread per person per day, and the flour content in it did not exceed 15%, the rest was pine sawdust. All this, as well as work in the most difficult conditions, led to huge mortality. In addition, the system of corporal punishment practiced in Germany and Austria-Hungary did not contribute to survival. In Germany, prisoners were often used instead of draft animals, they were mocked, beaten; the population was brought up in a spirit of contempt and hatred for the prisoners. In Austria-Hungary, in addition to punishment with rods, fettering of hands and feet from several hours to several days, hanging on arms turned back, nailing into a coffin for 2-3 hours was also used. In 1916, the High Command of the Russian Army received information that, for refusing to dig trenches, the Austrians crucified dozens of our prisoners of war on trees, and about 150 people were killed. At the same time, escape from captivity in the event of the capture of a fugitive was punishable by death. In the occupied territory, the Austro-Hungarian troops also executed those who gave protection to the fugitives. The punishments were somewhat mitigated only towards the end of 1917.

It is generally recognized that the use of prisoners of war, in violation of Art. 6 of the Hague Convention, for work for military purposes, however, such violations were allowed, perhaps, by all countries participating in the war.

The situation of prisoners of war on the territory of Russia was somewhat better, but also far from perfect. The supply of lower rank captives with food and things was usually carried out according to the lowest rank assigned to soldiers. For example, according to the orders of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief No. 000 and No. 000 for 1916, lunch with bread for the lower ranks cost 31 kopecks, without bread - 23 kopecks; for prisoners of war in the theater of operations - 19 kopecks, without bread - 12 kopecks, dinner, respectively - 16 and 12 kopecks. for the lower ranks and 10 and 7 kopecks. for prisoners of war. Along with similar categories of Russian soldiers, only sick prisoners and orderlies from prisoners who cared for acutely contagious patients were provided. The same was the case with the supply of prisoners of war with things. A telegram to the troops of the commander of the Romanian Front (June 1916) indicates that uniforms and shoes of the poorest quality were distributed to hospitals, work squads, prisoners of war, etc.

However, it should also be noted that the situation of prisoners of war in Siberia was somewhat better than in most regions of Russia.

As mentioned above, on the territory of Siberia, the Main Directorate of the General Staff placed mostly less reliable, compared to the Slavs and Romanians, prisoners. Thus, about Germans, Austrians and Hungarians got to the territory of Siberia. A significant part of these prisoners of war was placed in two Siberian military districts: Omsk (the territory of Western Siberia) and Irkutsk (Eastern Siberia). On the territory of the Irkutsk military district there were about 30 large concentration camps for prisoners of war, of which the largest was in Krasnoyarsk.

Accommodation of prisoners of war in Siberia

Prisoners of war arrived in Siberia in separate groups, from small to large enough. Their appearance has always aroused the liveliest interest of the local public.

Thus, the Vecherniy Krasnoyarsk newspaper tells about the meeting of the first batch of prisoners of war in Krasnoyarsk on September 18, 1914. Even despite the eight-hour delay of the train, most of those meeting patiently waited for the arrival of the prisoners: “At about 2 o’clock in the morning, a train with prisoners of war approaches the Krasnoyarsk station. Even though it's late, they don't sleep. Gray and black overcoats, gray caps, copper helmets covered with gray canvas are seen through the open doors. The train goes non-stop to the military post. After 5 minutes, prisoners were thrown out of the car ... Austrian officers very willingly come into contact with the public, the German ones behave arrogantly, ... they are surrounded by our soldiers and Cossacks. There are discussions and questions."

Arrived prisoners of war were placed in the Krasnoyarsk concentration camp. The Krasnoyarsk camp was located in barracks: “4 barracks were located on the banks of the Yenisei River opposite the railway bridge. The remaining 4 are in a military camp. Each barrack was surrounded by barbed wire and had 4 security posts. 12,000 prisoners of war ended up in the camp, but by 1916 there were 13,000 of them. So, 5,000 prisoners of war got to Kansk, to Achinsk, to Irkutsk.

Labor of prisoners of war and regulations governing it

In September 1914, the tsar instructed the Council of Ministers to develop a system of measures to attract prisoners of war to work. On October 7, the government approved the Rules "On the procedure for providing prisoners of war for the performance of state and public works at the disposal of departments interested in that." On October 10, the Rules "On the admission of prisoners of war to work on the construction of railways by private companies" appeared, and on March 17, 1915 - "On the release of prisoners of war for work in private industrial enterprises."

Entrepreneurs got freedom of action. Such an order was found in the funds of the State Archive of the Novosibirsk Region for the Tomsk Concentration Camp dated August 8, 1915 No. 26: Altai subdistrict,” it said.

In the autumn of 1914 - in the winter of 1915, 700 prisoners from the Krasnoyarsk camp "worked to improve the roads from the city of Krasnoyarsk to the village of Startseva, from the city of Krasnoyarsk to the Znamensky convent, from the village of Kubekovo to the village of Chastoostrovsky." In the spring and summer of 1915 prisoners of war from the Achinsk and Krasnoyarsk camps worked on the repair of the postal routes Achinsk - Minusinsk and Krasnoyarsk - Yeniseisk.

Averbakh. op. Part 1. S. 340.

Bulletin of the Omsk city public administration. 1915. No. 2. S. 9.

See: Internationalists. The working people of foreign countries are participants in the struggle for Soviet power. M.: Nauka, 1967. S. 24-25.

Bernat J. From the Memoirs of a Teacher: Hungarian Internationalists in the Great October Socialist Revolution. Novosibirsk: Military Publishing. S. 304.

Bulletin of the Omsk City Administration. 1915. No. 2. S. 934.

In the flames of revolution. Irkutsk, 1957, p. 9.

Internationalists in the battles for the power of the Soviets / Ed. . M.: Thought, 1965. S. 25.

More on the topic of prisoners of war in WWI and

Surrender to mercy
Prisoners of the First World War - Gentlemanship, bestiality and a humanitarian catastrophe

During the years of the First World War, a total of about 8 million soldiers and officers were in enemy captivity - a little less than the number of those who died on the battlefields. And it was the maintenance of prisoners of war that became, perhaps, the first unexpected problem that the countries that entered the war faced. Already from the first weeks of hostilities, the number of prisoners taken from both sides went to tens and hundreds of thousands, and the question arose - where to keep them, what to feed and what to do.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Russian prisoners of war in East Prussia. 1914

Of course, they were taken prisoner before. For example, as a result of the defeat of France in 1871, 120 thousand soldiers surrendered to Prussia. However, earlier such cases marked the end of wars, and the victorious prisoners were usually released home. This same war, as it became clear almost immediately, would not end quickly, and the prisoners kept coming and coming.

They solved the problem of prisoners in different countries in different ways, but in general, comparing with the experience of the future World War II, it was quite humane. Of course, the life of the prisoners was by no means “not sugar”, it could not do without cruelties and atrocities, but these were rather exceptions to the rules. Moreover, almost everywhere the fact of being captured was by no means equated with betrayal - it was taken for granted that soldiers left without cartridges surrounded by the enemy had the right to surrender to his mercy, instead of dying in vain. At least in order to later try to return and benefit the homeland. At the same time, it must be admitted that the most irreconcilable position in relation to their prisoners was occupied by the Russian leadership, which on principle refused to provide them with assistance. So Stalin, who later equated all captured compatriots with state criminals, by and large, was not a pioneer.

Every seventh

For the entire time of the First World War, about 13% of soldiers and officers were captured on both sides - approximately one in seven or eight. Most of all there were Russians (2.4 million), Austria-Hungary was in second place in terms of the number of prisoners (2.2 million), Germany was in third (about 1 million), then Italy (600 thousand), France (more 500 thousand), Turkey (250 thousand), Great Britain (170 thousand), Serbia (150 thousand). In total, more than 4 million people were captured by the Central Powers, and 3.5 million by the Entente countries.

The first large groups of prisoners, numbering in the hundreds of thousands, appeared already in the first months of the war. Soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian army (especially mobilized from among the Slavic peoples - Czechs, Slovaks and Serbs) tens of thousands laid down their arms in front of the Russians in Galicia. The Germans, in turn, captured tens of thousands of Russian soldiers during the defeat of the army of General Samsonov in August 1914 in East Prussia and no less than the French during the capture of the Maubeuge fortress, which in the very first days of the war ended up in a German “boiler” in the North of France. But even highly developed Germany was absolutely not ready for such a turn.

In the first weeks of the war, there were still cases of a "gentlemanly" attitude towards a captured enemy. So, on August 13, 1914, the 26th Mogilev Infantry Regiment, during an offensive in Galicia, freed a number of Russian soldiers previously captured by the Austrians, and they said that the Austrians even gave them warm blankets from the hospital. But very soon, when it turned out that there were not enough not only blankets, but also many other things necessary in everyday life, and already for their soldiers, the attitude towards the prisoners changed.

In more or less tolerable conditions in Germany, as a rule, only captured officers were kept in fortresses (the most famous - Ingolstadt, Königstein). The soldiers were placed at best, and then at first, in empty barracks, and more often in dugouts, which they dug for themselves in the fields and forests. It was not until the middle of the war that some kind of barracks were built in Germany.

For the captured Russian soldiers, it was the initial period of the war that turned out to be the most difficult. On the one hand, the Germans and Austrians had not yet been so embittered by the horrors of the war, Germany had not yet been gripped by a food crisis. But on the other hand, the logistics of supply and medical care for hundreds of thousands of additional "mouths" have not yet been built, even for the most meager rations. As a result, a humanitarian catastrophe broke out very soon.

In the winter of 1914-1915. among the prisoners in Germany, a terrible epidemic of typhus swept through, the methods of combating which the German doctors imagined very vaguely. In Germany, for a long time, this disease was almost not ill, and local doctors even simply did not have enough experience. Sometimes their nerves could not stand it - the prisoners died "like flies", hundreds a day, and some doctors simply ran away from this horror. Even worse was the fate of the Russian soldiers who found themselves in Turkish captivity (fortunately, there were few of them, since the Russian army acted for the most part successfully on the Caucasian front) - nothing is known about the vast majority at all.

Captivity - shameful and honorable

The moral and physical condition of the Russian prisoners and the attitude of their command towards them worsened. In fact, it was not Stalin who came up with the thesis that “all prisoners are traitors”, approximately the same attitude towards them dominated the General Staff and the First World War. Of course, it was not so radical: if a soldier was captured, being wounded, unconscious, or even simply in a hopeless situation (having spent all the ammunition), and then also managed to escape from captivity, this was treated with understanding. But at the same time, already at the beginning of the war, the Russian leadership made a fundamental decision - not to send food for prisoners to Germany, as Western European governments began to practice. Formally, it was explained by fears that German soldiers would take away and eat food for Russian prisoners, and it would turn out that we would help the enemy.

Russian prisoners of war in dugouts in Stettin

Although, according to only official data, more than half of the Russian soldiers and officers were captured, finding themselves in hopeless situations - either being wounded or shell-shocked, or as part of platoons, companies and entire regiments, being completely surrounded and without ammunition and seeing how the Germans from a safe distance shoot them with artillery. They said: "We were brought not to battle, but to slaughter." In such cases of mass surrender, by the way, the white flag was often thrown out on the direct orders of officers who understood their responsibility for the lives of their subordinates.

The command, as a rule, had no complaints about such prisoners, and if someone escaped from captivity and returned to duty, he could be considered a real hero. Among these fugitives, some of whom managed to reach their homeland only on the fourth or fifth attempt, having passed severe trials, there were quite a few well-known figures, including, for example, General Lavr Kornilov and Mikhail Tukhachevsky, who later became Marshal of the Soviet Union. In one of the German fortresses, along with Tukhachevsky, by the way, the future French President Charles de Gaulle, whom he personally met, was also captured. De Gaulle tried to escape six times, but failed each time. And then it never occurred to anyone to reproach him for being in German captivity.

In Russia, in April 1915, a decree was adopted ordering the deprivation of food allowances for the mobilized breadwinner of the families of the then "enemies of the people" - "voluntarily surrendered to the enemy and deserters." The military command sent lists of "traitors" to the governors, and on the ground they were publicized and publicly shamed.

Due to the traditional Russian confusion, such persons often included “missing persons”, among whom there were many who died “for faith, the tsar and the fatherland”. A little later, an order was issued ordering to shoot on the spot anyone who ran towards the enemy with their hands up, and this was to be done by colleagues. Of course, this order was carried out reluctantly, and in November 1915, the first similarities of the infamous detachments began to appear in the Russian army. But cases of surrender - sometimes by entire regiments - continued, even despite the stories actively spread by propaganda about German atrocities against prisoners.

“They were transported in wagons intended for the transportation of livestock”

The atrocities in the First World War were not as massive as in the Second by the Nazis, but they also took place. The Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry, for example, in June 1915 published a report prepared on the basis of the testimony of Russian soldiers who managed to escape from German or Austrian captivity. In particular, it provided the following information:

“The captured German soldiers and even officers usually took away their greatcoats, boots and everything valuable, up to pectoral crosses ... During the campaign, which sometimes lasted several days, the prisoners were not given any food, and they were forced to eat raw potatoes, swede and carrots, tearing vegetables out of the fields they passed by, being beaten by the escorts for this. The senior non-commissioned officer of the Siberian regiment Rafail Kochurovsky witnessed how a German soldier shot a prisoner on the spot with a shot from a rifle because the latter, having failed, rushed to pick up a half-rotted turnip lying on the road ...

The prisoners were transported in filthy, smelly wagons intended for the transport of livestock, the floor of which was covered with a thick layer of manure. From 80 to 90 prisoners were placed in such a car. The overflow caused such tightness that it was impossible to sit or lie down. The prisoners were forced to stand all the way, supporting each other. Before the departure of the train, the car was tightly locked, and the natural need was sent right there in the car, using caps for this, which were then thrown out through a small window, which at the same time served as the only ventilation. The air in the car, according to the unanimous testimony of all the prisoners who returned to their homeland, was terrible. People suffocated, fainted, many died.

The cleaning of cesspools and latrines in the camp was the sole responsibility of the Russians. The prisoners, in batches of several hundred people, were forced to dig ditches to drain swamps, cut down forests, carry logs, dig trenches, etc.

When performing field work, prisoners, with the help of special devices, were harnessed to plows and harrows by 14-16 people, and for days on end, replacing working cattle, plowed and leveled the fields. Pyotr Lopukhov, a private of the Ivangorod regiment, with tears in his eyes, told how he, along with other prisoners, was harnessed to a plow, and the German, who was following the plow, urged him on with a long belt whip ...

The German escort again raised the tired, crouched to rest prisoner to work with blows of a stick, a butt, and often a bayonet. Those who did not want to perform this or that work were beaten to the point of loss of consciousness, and sometimes to death ... Private of the 23rd Infantry Regiment Anton Snotalsky was an eyewitness of how in the Schneidemülle camp a German soldier killed a prisoner on the spot with a shot from a gun, who from weakness could not go to work .

Not to mention rubber sticks, vein whips and whips, with which the German sergeants, non-commissioned officers and soldiers who watched the prisoners were supplied in abundance, a whole series of cruel punishments were applied in the camps, imposed for the most insignificant offenses, and sometimes without any reason. Prisoners were deprived of hot food for very long periods; forced to stand for several hours in a row with their hands up, each of which was invested with 4-5 bricks; they put their bare knees on broken bricks, forced them aimlessly, until they were completely exhausted, to drag weights around the barracks, etc., but punishments reminiscent of medieval torture were the favorite and most frequently used.

The offender was tied [by his hands tied behind his back] to a post driven into the ground so high that his feet barely touched the ground. In this position, the suspended was left for two, three and even four hours; After 20-25 minutes, the blood rushed to the head, profuse bleeding began from the nose, mouth and ears, the unfortunate gradually weakened, lost consciousness ... "

Torture of a Russian prisoner of war in an Austrian camp

In addition to publishing such reports, the Russian authorities used the methods of "popular agitation". Chairman of the State Duma Rodzianko suggested using fugitives from enemy captivity to tell stories about horrors in trams and trains, and since there weren’t enough fugitives, professional beggars were released onto the streets of St.

Morbidity and mortality among Russian prisoners was indeed twice as high as among British, French and Belgian prisoners. They survived the hungry winter of 1914-15. mainly through parcels from home sent through the Red Cross, while the Russians received only crumbs from charitable organizations. But if these same figures are compared with the Serbs, who received nothing at all from philanthropists, then their mortality rate was even higher, like that of the Italians and Romanians who later entered the war. But still, despite all the suffering, of the total number of Russian soldiers who were in captivity, only 6% died - even taking into account the raging epidemics, and among them only 294 officers.

The most dangerous moment for a prisoner was precisely the moment of capture. On August 21, 1914, the German commander of the 33rd ersatz battalion wrote to his wife: “My people were so embittered that they did not give mercy, because the Russians often pretend to surrender, raise their hands up, and if you approach them, they again raise their guns and shoot, and as a result - heavy losses.

At the same time, as follows from the memoirs of already Russian soldiers, most often in such situations there was no deceit. In the conditions of loss of control, one officer, deciding that further resistance was useless, could shout “Surrender!”, And the soldiers raised their hands. And after a few seconds, one of the other officers - simply uncompromising or having his own plan of further action - ordered to fight on, and the same soldiers who were already ready to surrender, following the order, began to shoot again.

Prisoners of high qualification

But the fate of the German and Austrian soldiers who fell into Russian captivity was even worse. Among them, at least a quarter eventually died from starvation and typhoid epidemics. In Russian prison camps, even more terrible than in Germany, a humanitarian catastrophe broke out already at the end of the war, after the 1917 revolution. In conditions of almost complete anarchy and anarchy, no one cared about the prisoners at all, and they stopped being fed and given any care. A significant part of the survivors, by the way, were Czechs and Slovaks, of which by 1917 the Czechoslovak Corps was formed, which was supposed to fight on the side of the Entente. In Soviet historiography, this episode entered as the "uprising of the White Czechs."

And before the revolution, prisoners of the German and Austro-Hungarian armies, among whom there were many skilled workers, were treated in Russia not only with tolerance, but sometimes with interest, trying to use their skills in production. Thus, more than 40 thousand prisoners worked in the mines and factories of Donbass during the First World War, and they were even paid a reasonable salary - up to 1 ruble 25 kopecks per day, in addition to providing clothes, shoes and underwear.

Prisoners awaiting transfer in the rear

Professor of Moscow University, historian Sergei Melgunov noted in the summer of 1916 that “the prisoners, especially the Hungarians and Germans, are treated too condescendingly, there is a rumor about the special patronage of the Germans and our dependence on the “internal Germans” (meaning a large number of ethnic Germans, who moved to Russia back in the 17th-18th centuries and mostly German blood in the ruling dynasty - RP). A special instruction even ordered prisoners of war used in industrial enterprises to be fed with meat. The jingoistic patriots complained about this instruction most of all, because "even peasants do not eat meat every day." The Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich, also believed that there was no need to mess with the prisoners: “The slightest manifestation of insolence or a challenge should be punished immediately by transferring them to the position of prisoners, and in further cases of such behavior, handcuffs should be put on the prisoners, etc. ".

Prisoners working in production in Russia had relative freedom and, although they lived in barracks at the factory, they could also get out of the territory of an impromptu "camp". Something similar towards the end of the war, as historian Maxim Oskin notes, was also observed in Austria-Hungary - prisoners at night went straight through the camp gates to neighboring villages, and sentries turned away indifferently. And in Germany, in the camps of Russian prisoners, in addition to official management, by the end of the war, self-government bodies, camp committees were already being formed that contacted the commandant's offices and resolved humanitarian issues - from the distribution of charitable assistance to the organization of correspondence with relatives and camp leisure (in exemplary camps, usually there were theater circles, German language courses, etc.).

Russians are not subject to exchange

By the spring of 1915, provisions had already been developed in Germany on the standards of detention: how much prisoners should receive food, medical care, etc. Since that time, they began to be actively involved in work - from digging trenches to the production of shells, although the Hague Convention forbade forcing them to work for the enemy. However, absolutely all countries began to attract prisoners of war to work in difficult wartime conditions and a shortage of workers.

The Germans rarely used Russian prisoners in their factories, since they believed that absolutely all Russians were illiterate rednecks, unable to master complex production. Therefore, they were most often sent to work in the fields. But every cloud has a silver lining - it was an additional chance to survive, since in agriculture, for obvious reasons, it was easier with food, and the Germans soon began to lack them for themselves.

By the beginning of the First World War, two Hague Conventions on the Laws and Customs of War had already been signed - 1899 and 1907, where provisions on prisoners of war were spelled out, among other things. But each country interpreted the provisions of the conventions in its own way, and the only thing that really somehow worked in practice was the admission of representatives of the International Committee and national organizations of the Red Cross to the prisoner of war camps.

This system worked "somehow", because the Red Cross could not carry out inspections in all camps. In each country, depending on the preferences and fantasies of local authorities, there were various types of camps - basic, penal, quarantine, so-called "work teams", camps in the front line, etc. The list of camps visited by the observers was compiled by the host parties themselves - usually these were only "exemplary" main camps in the deep rear. Nevertheless, during the war years, 41 Red Cross delegates managed to visit 524 camps throughout Europe. By the end of the war, more than 20 million letters and messages had been sent through the Red Cross, 1.9 million transmissions and donations worth 18 million Swiss francs had been collected.

Empress Alexandra Feodorovna (left) with her daughter Tatyana and Tsarevich Alexei (right)
collecting donations for the Red Cross. 1914

Also, diplomats from neutral countries - Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Spain - mediated in resolving issues of control over the situation of prisoners of war. Specifically, it was the Spaniards who were “responsible” for Russian prisoners of war in Germany.

With the mediation of neutral countries, additional agreements were signed to alleviate the fate of individual prisoners of war. For example, it was possible to ensure that patients with tuberculosis and the disabled could leave for a neutral country, where they fell into the position of internees and lived in more comfortable conditions. There were also periodically mutual exchanges of prisoners of war, clearly no longer able to hold weapons. It is curious that the Germans and Austro-Hungarians usually acted as the initiators of such humanism. Moreover, at the end of the war, the exchange of healthy prisoners began - older and large soldiers. In total, thanks to such actions, about 200 thousand prisoners were able to return to their homeland. Most of them were soldiers who fought on the Western Front, while on the Eastern Front such agreements remained isolated until the very end due to the hostile attitude of the Russian command towards their prisoners. Moreover, even the line of individual exchange was completely closed for them.

For example, captured Russian generals and their families during the war massively wrote petitions to the highest name with a request to exchange them, but the tsarist government remained firm, considering them all traitors, or believing that they should escape on their own. Although most of these generals, according to the documents, were taken prisoner, finding themselves in hopeless situations through no fault of their own - as a result of a complete encirclement, as was the case with the defeat of Samsonov's army near Tannenberg in East Prussia in August 1914 (15 generals), in the battle on the border of East Prussia in the forest near Augustow in February 1915 (11 generals) or in the surrounded Novogeorgievsk fortress near Warsaw (17 generals).

Among the series of tragedies of the Great Patriotic War, along with the millions of dead, one of the most serious is captivity. To some extent, captivity is even more terrible for perception than death in battle, because one can understand when millions died with weapons in their hands, protecting their native land from invaders. But it is difficult to imagine that millions find themselves in enemy captivity.

In total, during the war years, 4559.0 thousand were reported missing, almost 40% of the total number of irretrievable losses. Most of them ended up in captivity, from which only 1836 thousand people returned (1)

When the bill goes into millions, it always causes shock and a dumb question: how is it ?! Some kind of catch is immediately implied, well, 4.5 million soldiers and officers could not just be captured for objective reasons without exhausting all the possibilities for resistance!

This is what liberals and pseudo-historians take advantage of in the most impudent way, laying out a ready-made answer: it was they who, they say, did not want to fight for the Bolsheviks. So they surrendered to the Germans without exception, until the bloody “commies” detachments began to force the army to go into battle.

Tellingly, this point of view is shared by both monarchists and Nazis, and, of course, liberal democrats. This is one of the key points of their unity in the fight against a common enemy - the Soviet state (even the deceased) and directly with our history.

Their bread is to give simple answers to complex questions. Take any one negative trait and inflate it to universal proportions, because if you do not delve into the events of those terrible days in detail, then such an answer, in principle, will even seem logical. After all, if they wanted to fight for their country, they would have fought, and not surrendered, right? ..

As a rule, bawlers are silent about how the thin line of covering armies had to stop the armada of the Germans and their allies. About how the infantry “on its own two feet” should have avoided the encirclement of the Germans by motorized units, the answer is all the more unanswerable.

The purpose of this article is not to analyze how stubbornly the Soviet troops defended themselves (German documents are full of reports on the stubborn, sometimes desperate resistance of the encircled), we will only touch on this topic in passing when there is a special need for it.

Along the way, forgive me common sense, I will try to apply the logic of the liberals to the events of those times and compare them with the events of the Great Patriotic War. I’ll make a reservation right away: the author fundamentally does not accept such a “liberal” approach to history, and aims to show all its absurdity, along the way conveying to the reader a lot of useful information about the battles of past wars.

Part 1 is here for you - "Two boilers", which is based on reflections on the similarities and differences between the encirclement of the Soviet 3rd and 10th armies in the Bialystok pocket and the death of the 2nd Russian army near Tannenberg.

So, in 1914, the Russian army, after the mobilization, totaled 6 million 553 thousand people. (2)

It is worth comparing this number with the 4.8 million people who were in the Red Army on June 22, 1941, of which there were only 2.9 million people in the western districts, divided into three unrelated operational echelons.

active phase first world war after a series of preparations, it began for the Russian army with the planned deployment and invasion of the 1st and 2nd armies into East Prussia on August 17, 1914, that is, almost three weeks after the announcement of mobilization. Despite the poor preparation of the offensive and the inconclusive deployment of forces, there was still plenty of time, especially in comparison with the time that the Red Army had to prepare for war. Let me remind you that the first measures to deploy the army began to be taken only after the TASS report, namely on June 18-19, 1941.

With a total of 304 battalions against 183 of the Germans and 183 (!) Squadrons against 84, having an overwhelming qualitative superiority of personnel divisions over the German reserve corps, mixed with units of the Landwehr and Landsturm, the armies of the North-Western Front launched an offensive. Having successfully started the operation with the Battle of Gumbinnen, in which the Germans suffered a painful defeat, the 1st and 2nd armies began, to the delight of the Germans, who were already thinking about a retreat, slowly, and completely inconsistently, fanning out in different directions. The German command seemed to have just regained confidence in their strength. Radio intercepts of unencrypted orders to the armies of Rennenkampf and Samsonov completely outlined the disposition of the Russian armies: a gap of many kilometers was formed between them, unfilled by anyone. Possessing an overwhelming superiority in cavalry, our generals could not really use it even to cover the flanks, not to mention the effective pursuit of the retreating Germans and lighting up the “fog of war” in front of the troops advancing blindly towards death. Taking advantage of the sluggishness of the offensive from the 1st Army, the German units (including partially even the Königsberg garrison) broke away from the pursuit, plunged into trains and, carrying out a railway maneuver, went straight to the flank of Samsonov's 2nd Army. There, having joined with the arrived reserves and the main forces of the 8th Army, they began an operation to encircle. On August 27-30, the corps of the 2nd Russian Army found themselves in a ring, being separated from the corps of the 1st Army by 80-100 km. Torn off purely voluntarily and by their own stupidity, and not under the influence of the blows of the Germans imposing their will.

Agree, what a striking contrast with the circumstances of the encirclement of units of the 3rd and 10th Soviet armies in the Bialystok ledge! When two tank groups, much more powerful than their opponents, broke through the front and quickly reached the rear communications of an area so poor in communication routes, trapping Soviet troops in a wooded and swampy area, continuously ironing the retreating columns with bombs, burning tractors, forcing them to abandon artillery and go for a breakthrough with rifles against machine guns.

In our case, the superiority of forces is entirely on the side of the armies of Samsonov and Rennenkampf, but the Germans manage to turn the initial defeat into a brilliant victory.

How did those around you behave?

Separate units of the 2nd Army offered heroic resistance, as 25 years later the troops in the Bialystok cauldron. As General M. Zaionchkovsky writes (2),

In this battle, the Russians defeated the 6th and 70th Landwehr Brigades at Gross-Bessau and Mühlen, the Goltz Landwehr Division, the 3rd Rez. division near Hohenstein, 41st Infantry Division near Waplitz, 37th Infantry. a division under Lana, Orlau, Frankenau; finally, they defeated the 2nd infantry. divisions near Uzdau, but the individual successes of the Russians were not linked to a common victory.

But what are individual successes against the backdrop of a general catastrophe?

Parts of XIII and XV corps and 2 infantry. the divisions broke up into separate groups, made up of different military units of infantry, artillery and Cossacks (divisional cavalry), and continued to fight on August 30 and 31. Few managed to break through, but for the most part these groups, left without the leadership of senior commanders, made their way at random along forest roads and, when meeting with the enemy, were unable to organize a successful breakthrough.

Behind the phrase "were not able to organize a successful breakthrough" very unpleasant things are hidden.

For example, General A.A. Blagoveshchensky, commander of the 6th Army Corps, one of the direct culprits for the encirclement of the 2nd Army, fled from his troops. The corps uncontrollably rolled back behind the commander behind the border, opening the flank of their comrades for the Germans. As he then justified himself, "I'm not used to being with the troops." (A.A. Kersnovsky, "History of the Russian Army")

Commander of the 23rd Army Corps, General K.A. Kondratovich also fled from his troops to the rear.

But the main "hero" in this whole tragedy is, of course, General N.A. Klyuev, commander of the XIII Corps.

During the fighting in the encirclement, he, leading a divisional column that was going to break through, in front of the last line of German machine guns, suddenly ordered the orderly to go to the Germans with a white handkerchief in his hands. And more than 20 thousand people with weapons surrendered without a fight, not wounded, having every opportunity not only to continue resistance, but also to safely break through to their own.

A characteristic touch - of all the higher ranks of the corps, only the chief of staff of the 36th Infantry Division, Colonel Vyakhirev, made his way. Of the entire composition, 165 people and a team of scouts made their way. It was they who did not obey the order to surrender and went on a breakthrough. As we can see, successful. (Ibid.)

The circumstances of the suicide of General Samsonov also deserve attention - when, while trying to break through with his headquarters, he was not supported by an escort who did not want to go to machine guns, and was forced to shoot himself in order to avoid shame.

It is worth noting that the topic of command in the tsarist army deserves detailed consideration in a separate article.

Again, a striking contrast with the frenzy with which the Soviet 10th and 3rd armies made their way through the swamps to their own, sweeping away German barriers one after another, inflicting sensitive losses on the enemy, stubbornly defending and delaying their pursuers at every possible line, clinging to bridgeheads with their teeth at key crossings in June 1941. (five)

The enemy managed to complete the encirclement only on July 2, 1941, having wandered in order through the forests and decently disheveled their divisions. According to German data, 116,100 prisoners were taken prisoner (here it would be worth mentioning the methods for counting prisoners of war by the Germans, but this is a topic for a separate material), but the success was only partial - a significant part of the Soviet troops escaped safely from the boiler, despite the loss of heavy artillery and more parts of technology.

Let me remind you that Samsonov’s army, which did not encounter breakthroughs of tank groups and bomb carpets, had equality with the enemy in manpower (10.5 infantry divisions versus 11.5 for the enemy) and surpassed them qualitatively, lost 92 thousand prisoners in those battles in 3 days , with combat losses of only 8 thousand people killed. (3) Other estimates give figures from 80,000 to 97,000 prisoners. Regarding the losses killed in the 3rd and 10th armies in 1941, the German report of Army Group Center unequivocally stated: "The loss of the enemy killed, according to unanimous estimates, is extremely high." Feel the difference, as they say.

After the encirclement of the 2nd Army, the German blow logically fell on the 1st Army, which had previously shamefully left its comrades in trouble, and until September 17, the Rennenkampf army added another 45 thousand captured to the German “piggy bank”.

It's time to ask the question - why, in fact, the captured soldiers and officers of the Soviet army are recorded by our precious liberals as "those who did not want to fight" and "surrendered at the first opportunity"?

Excuse me, but if 116 thousand prisoners, who fought a much stronger enemy for a week and a half, “did not want to fight for the power of the Bolsheviks,” then 97 thousand prisoners in East Prussia, who fought with an enemy at least equal, or even weaker, all the more should were not willing to fight "for the Faith, the Tsar and the Fatherland"? Otherwise, how did the Germans collect such a significant "harvest"?

Sorry, but the logic is lame. If we operate only on the number of prisoners, then an argument of this level instantly becomes a double-edged sword, and it hits the tsarist army no less painfully, in the period of its greatest power. When there were no Bolsheviks even close, the country lived in the expectation of victory, on the wave of patriotism, the catastrophe and the "shell hunger" had not yet struck, a well-trained personnel army on pre-war reserves went to smash the enemy with little blood on its territory.

Agree, to accuse the divisions of Samsonov's army of pacifism is at least stupid, which no one actually does. But for some reason, in relation to the prisoners in the same Bialystok cauldron, such statements are pouring in as if from a cornucopia.

But our rulers of thoughts and biased "historians" have long been accustomed to the policy of double standards. So let's think for ourselves.

But all this was only the beginning, much more terrible events will unfold in 1915, which we will talk about.

*Note.

1) G.M. Krivosheev, “Russia and the USSR in the wars of the XX century, statistical study”

2) M. Zayonchkovsky, "The First World War"

3) N. Golovin, "Russia's Military Efforts in the First World War"

4) A.A. Kersnovsky, "History of the Russian Army"

For more information about the death of the 2nd Army in East Prussia, see also, for example, G. Isserson, Cannes of the World War.

5) For the battles of the 3rd and 10th armies, see A. Isaev, “Unknown 1941. Stopped blitzkrieg.