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Imperial Loyalties and Private Concerns: Nation, Class, and State in the Correspondence of Austro-Hungrian POWs in Russia, 1916–1918
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 February 2009
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one of the most common experiences during World War I (and one of the least researched topics in the historiography of the war) was the experience of captivity. During four years of fighting, an estimated 8.5 million soldiers were taken captive, or roughly 1 out of every 9 men to don uniforms during the war. Among the warring countries, none had a greater prisoner of war problem than Austria-Hungary: out of 8 million soldiers mobilized by the Dual Monarchy during the war, an estimated 2.77 million wound up in POW camps, the great majority (2.11 million) in Russia.
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1 Streeruwitz was in charge of the political section of Department lO.Kgf (the department responsible for POW affairs in the Austro-Hungarian War Ministry). He was a prominent Christian Social politician during the Austrian First Republic and served as chancellor in 1928. He wrote these lines in 1931. See Ernst, Streeruwitz, “Der Umsturz in Ruszligland und die Kriegsgefangenen,”in In Feindeshand. Die Gefangenschaft im Weltkriege in Einzeldarstellungen, ed. Hans, Weiland and Leopold, Kern, 2 vols. (Vienna, 1931), 1:268–70.Google Scholar See also his memoirs, Springfluumltber Österreich. Erinnerungen, Erlebnisse und Gedanken aus bewegter Zeit 1914–1929 (Vienna, 1937), and his manuscript Kriegsgefangene im Weltkrieg 1914 bis 1918, deposited in the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum in Vienna.Google Scholar
2 The exact number of Austro-Hungarian POWs in Russia was never established. This had to do with the large number of Habsburg soldiers missing in action (837,483 when the war ended) and with faulty registration procedures on the part of the Russian military administration. The figure 2,111,146 Austro-Hungarian POWs is the official number compiled by the superintendent of POW affairs at the Austro-Hungarian War Ministry, Heinrich von Raabl-Werner. Russian figures are somewhat lower. The official figure published in 1925 in Rossiya v mirovoy voine 1914–1918 goda was 1,961,333 POWs in Russia (of those, 160,000–180,000 were German and 50,000 Turkish).Google Scholar See Raabl, Werner, “Gesamtzahl der Kgf.-u. Zivilgef.,” KA/ Nachlaszlig Raabl-Wernersol B 141:4/ Mappe 21; Weiland, and Kern, , eds., In Feindeshand, statistical appendix; A.Klevanskiy, “Voennoplenye tsentral', nykh derzhav v tsarskoi i revolyutsionnoi Rossii (1914–1918),” in Internatsionalisty v boyakh za vlast' Sovietov, ed. Birman, M. (Moscow, 1965), 21–65;Google Scholar Gerald, H. Davis, “The Life of Prisoners of War in Russia, 1914–1921,” in Essays on World War I: Origins and Prisoners of War, ed. Samuel R., Williamson and Peter, Pastor, East European Monographs 126 (New york,1918), 163–96.Google Scholar
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5 As if to confirm this view, a series of large-scale mutinies that were organized and led in many cases by returning POWs broke out among Austro-Hungarian reserve units in the spring and summer of 1918
6 On captivity, see the following works: articles by Robert, Ezerov, Julija, Kudrina, Hannes, Leidinger, Verena, Moritz, Reinhard, Nachtigal, Alon, Rachamimov, and Evgeny, Sergeev in the special issue of Zeitgeschkhte 11–12 (1998); Yücel Yanikda“Ottoman Prisoners of War in Russia, 1914–1922,” Journal of Contemporary History 34, no. 1: 69–85;Google Scholar Leidinger, and Moritz, , “Österreich-Ungarn und die Heimkehrer,” Marina Rossi, I prigionieri dello Zar: soldati italiani dell'esercito austro-ungarko nei lager della Russia 1914–1918 (Milan, 1997);Google Scholar Reinhard, Nachtigal,“Kriegsgefangene der Habsburgermonarchie in Russland,” Österreich in Geschichte und Literatur 4–5a (1996): 248–62; articles by Ivo, Banac, Gerald, Davis, Josef, Kalvoda, Arnold, Krammer, Peter, Pastor, and Rowan, Williamson in Essays on World War I, ed. Williamson, and Pastor, (Gerald Davis's article in this collection is an excellent introduction to the subject);Google Scholar Ivan, Volgyes, “Hungarian Prisoners of War in Russia,” Cahiers du monde Russe et Soviitique 14 (1973);Google Scholar Weiland, and Kern, , eds., In Feindeshand; and Elsa Brändström, Among Prisoners of War in Russia and Siberia,trans. C.Mabel, Rickmers, with preface by Nathan Soderblom, Archbishop of Upssala (London,1929).Google Scholar
7 Regarding the Czech Legion, the South Slav Legion, and the Bolshevik Internationalists, see,respectively, Vlastimil Váevra, “Formováení České družiny,” Historie a Vojenství (1990): 107–18;Google Scholar John, Bradley, The Czechoslovak Legion in Russia, 1914–1920, East European Monographs 321 (New York, 1991);Google Scholar Josef, Kalvoda, “Czech and Slovak Prisoners of War in Russia during the War and Revolution,” in Essays on World War I, ed. Williamson, and Pastor, , 215–38;Google Scholar Karel, Pichlik, Zahraničnf odboj bez legend (Prague, 1968);Google Scholar Margarete, Klante, Die Geschichte der Tschechischen Legion in Ruβland (Berlin, 1929);Google Scholar Za, svobudu: Obrázkovd kronika českloslovenského hnuti na Rusi 1914–1920, 4vols. (Prague, 1924);Google Scholar Josef, Kudela, Přehled vŷyvoje csl. revolučího hnutí na Rusi (Prague, 1923);Google Scholar Frantiaek, Steidler, Ceskoslovenské hnutí na Rusi (Prague, 1922);Google Scholar Lager, Front oder Heimat. Deutsche Kriegsgefangene in Sowjetruβland 1917–1920, ed. Inge, Pardon and Waleri, Schrawiljov, 2 vols.(Berlin, 1994);Google Scholar Arnold, Krammer, “Soviet Propaganda among German and Austro-Hungarian Prisoners of War in Russia,” in Essays on World War I, ed. Williamson, and Pastor, , 249–64; V“Hungarian Prisoners of War”Google Scholar M., Birman, ed., Internatsionalisty v boyakh za vlas't Sovietov (Moscow, 1965)Google Scholar; and Ivo, Banac, “South Slav Prisoners of War in Revolutionary Russia,” in Essays on World War I, ed. Williamson and Pastor,119–48.Google Scholar
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9 Wassermair, , “Die Meutereien der Heimkehrer,” 87–88.Google Scholar
10 There were strong reasons for not making such a commitment, including the knowledge that eventually they would be required togive account for their behavior in Russia. The Austrian military chaplain, Karl Drexel, described how officers captured together put together an agreed version of the circumstances surrounding their capture; Karl, Drexel, Feldkurat in Sibirien (Innsbruck,1940).Google Scholar In another example, according to a letter written by one of the prisoners, a Czech recruiting officer attempting in the summer of 1917 to enlist POW volunteers in the labor camp Kamenskii Zavod found only “three fools who are willing to support the continuation of the war,” this despite four days of propaganda activity among many Czech, , Romanian, , Croat, , and Slovene, prisoners.Google Scholar
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14 According to official Austrian figures there were altogether 1,861,000 captive enemy soldiers in the Habsburg monarchy. Of them the two largest groups were Russian POWs (1,269,000) and Italian POWs (369,600). In Germany there were 1,484,000 Russian POWs. Weiland, and Kern, , eds., In Feindeshand, statistical appendix.Google Scholar
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18 The language distribution of the letters was as follows: German, 818; Czech, 351; Polish, 149; Ukrainian, 61; Slovak, 36; Slovene, 27; Hungarian, 14; Italian, 7; Romanian, 5; Croat, 4; Serb, 2; and German translation without indication of the original language, 2. The rank distribution was as follows: rank and file, 1,099; officers, 237; one-year volunteers, 50; cadets, 42; ensigns, 34; chaplains, 2; and unclear, 12.
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22 Willi, Keiner, a young German private from Frankfurt am Main, wrote home in November 1914: “It is getting very cold and everyone tells us through signs that our uniforms are just too thin … twenty men went to sleep in a circle, trying hard to keep our wet feet covered with hay. We fell asleep overly tired and when we woke up we found that only our heads were sticking out of the hay. The [Russian] soldiers had covered us so we would not freeze during the night.” “Grüsse aus Sibirien: Lebenszeichen eines Kriegsgefangenen 1914–1919,” manuscript in Bundesarchiv Militärarchiv (Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany), Msg. 200/1194, 3.Google Scholar
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29 Friedrich, Spitzer, “Unsere Kriegsgefangenen und Intemierten in Ruβland und Rumanien N2,” chap. 1: “Besuche der österreichischen u. deutschen Schwestern vom Roten Kreuz,” pp. XIV-XV, öStA/KA/AOK 1917/ GZNB Kart. 3750, Akt. 4600.Google Scholar
30 Platovka, , Orenburg, Jan Pekar, March 4, 1917 (letter originally written in Slovak), öStA/ KA/AOK 1917/ GZNB Kart. 3752, Akt. 4759, letter 70.Google Scholar
31 “Omsk (Omsk), Vladimir Zeman nach Wallachitsch-Wallachitsch-Meseritsch, Mähren,” without date, öStA/KA/AOK 1917/ Kart. 3750, Akt. 4600, letter 11d.
32 ÖstA/KA/AOK 1917/ Kart. 3751, Akt. 4664, letter 35.
33 “Balashov (Gov Saratov), Kgf. I.B. an das Rote Kreuz in Prag,” April 2, 1917, AOK 1917/ GZNB Kart. 3751, Akt. 4700, letter 15; “Saratov, Josef Polcar nach Böhmen,” March 22,1917, AOK 1917/ Kart. 3752, Akt. 4759, letter 76b.
34 “Stryetensk (Transbaikalien), Offiz Asp. Gyula Kisfalu nach Ungarn,” October 20,1917 (letter written originally in Hungarian), AOK 1917/1918/ GZNB Kart. 3756, Akt. 4932, letter 119. They were told this by the Swedish delegation itself.
35 “Krasnojarsk (Janissesjk), Lt Rudolf Bauer nach Böhmen,” September 22,1917 (letter written originally in German), Ibid.., letter 90.
36 “Agrys (Wjatka), Franz Uebergänger nach Tirol,” March 11,1917 (letter written originally in German), AOK 1917/ GZNB Kart. 3751, Akt. 4700, letter 1.
37 “Totzkoje (Samara), Lt Gustav Pröglhof nach Nied. Oest. [Lower Austria],” October 21,1917 (letter written originally in German), AOK 1917/ GZNB Kart. 3756, Akt. 4980, letter 261.
38 On the subversive tactics of soldiers during World War I, see Leonard, Smith, Between Mutiny and Obedience: The Case of the French Fifth Infantry Division during World War I (Princeton, N.J., 1994)Google Scholar; Wilhelm, Deist, “Verdeckter Militärstreik im Kriegsjahr 1918,” in Der Krieg des kleinen Mannes, ed. Wolfram, Wette (Munich, 1992)Google Scholar; Richard, Holmes, Acts of War: The Behavior of Men in Battle (New York, 1986)Google Scholar; and Tony, Ashworth, Trench Warfare: The Live and Let Live System (New York, 1980).Google Scholar