Camps For Russian Prisoners And Internees In Poland (1919–1924)
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Camps for Russian prisoners and internees in Poland that existed during 1919–1924 housed two main categories of detainees: the personnel of the
Imperial Russian Army The Imperial Russian Army () was the army of the Russian Empire, active from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was organized into a standing army and a state militia. The standing army consisted of Regular army, regular troops and ...
and civilians, captured by
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during
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
and left on Polish territory after the end of the war; and the Soviet military personnel captured during the
Polish–Soviet War The Polish–Soviet War (14 February 1919 – 18 March 1921) was fought primarily between the Second Polish Republic and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, following World War I and the Russian Revolution. After the collapse ...
, the vast majority of them captured as a result of the battles of 1920. Locations of the camps included Strzałkowo, Pikulice,
Wadowice Wadowice () is a town in southern Poland, southwest of Kraków with 17,455 inhabitants (2022), situated on the Skawa river, confluence of Vistula, in the eastern part of Silesian Foothills (Pogórze Śląskie). Wadowice is known for being the bir ...
, and
Tuchola Tuchola (; ) is a town in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship in northern Poland. The Pomeranian town, which is the seat of Tuchola County, had a population of 13,418 . Geographical location Tuchola lies about north of Bydgoszcz, close to th ...
. Due to epidemics raging at the time, made worse by the very bad sanitary conditions in which the prisoners were held, largely due to overcrowding, between 16,000 and 20,000 Soviet soldiers held in the Polish POW camps died, out of the total of 80,000 to 85,000 prisoners.


Background

During the Polish-Soviet War, between 80,000 and 85,000 Waldemar Rezmer, Zbigniew Karpus, Gennadij Matvejev, ''"Krasnoarmieitsy v polskom plenu v 1919–1922 g. Sbornik dokumentov i materialov"'', Federal Agency for Russian Archives, Moscow 2004 Soviet soldiers became
prisoners of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a ...
, and were held in Polish
POW camp A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured as prisoners of war by a belligerent power in time of war. There are significant differences among POW camps, internment camps, an ...
s. The conditions in these camps were bad, as the newly recreated Polish state lacked many basic capabilities and had few resources to construct them. Thus, the existing camps, many of which were adapted from
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
German and Russian facilities or constructed by the prisoners themselves, were not adequate for holding the large number of prisoners, who suffered from hunger, bad sanitation and inadequate hygiene. Between 16,000 and 17,000 (Polish figures) and 18,000-20,000 (Russian figures) of the Soviet POWs died, in the vast majority of cases as a result of illness or
epidemic An epidemic (from Greek ἐπί ''epi'' "upon or above" and δῆμος ''demos'' "people") is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of hosts in a given population within a short period of time. For example, in meningococcal infection ...
s which raged in the camps. Before publications of new findings in Russia in 2004, some Russian sources gave much-inflated numbers for prisoners and the death toll (up to 165,000 and 70,000), respectively. This matter caused much controversy between Poland and Russia.


The camps

The bad conditions in these camps were known to
public opinion Public opinion, or popular opinion, is the collective opinion on a specific topic or voting intention relevant to society. It is the people's views on matters affecting them. In the 21st century, public opinion is widely thought to be heavily ...
in Poland at the time, as a number of Polish newspapers openly wrote about them, criticizing the government for not correcting the situation. In modern times the issue has been addressed in a number of scholarly publications. Karpus, Zbigniew, ''Jeńcy i internowani rosyjscy i ukraińscy na terenie Polski w latach 1918–1924'', Toruń 1997,
Polish table of contents online
. English translation: ''Russian and Ukrainian prisoners of war and internees kept in Poland in 1918–1924'', Wydawn. Adam Marszałek, 2001, .


The controversy

The issue of the actual number of prisoners and their estimated death toll was a source of controversy for a long time until a joint team of Polish and Russian historians reexamined documents from both Polish and Russian archives in 2004. The commission included Prof. Waldemar Rezmer and Prof. Zbigniew Karpus from
Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń or NCU (, UMK) is located in Toruń, Poland. It is named after Nicolaus Copernicus, who was born in Toruń in 1473. History The beginnings of higher education in Toruń The first institution of higher ...
as well as Prof. Gennady Matveyev from the
Moscow State University Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public university, public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, a ...
. It was estimated by Karpus and Rezmer that the number of Russian POWs was near 110,000 and at least 157,000 by Matveyev. The number of deaths in the camps was estimated between 16,000-17,000 (Karpus, Rezmer) and 18,000-20,000 (Matveyev). While the conditions in camps were harsh, the major causes of death were epidemics of
influenza Influenza, commonly known as the flu, is an infectious disease caused by influenza viruses. Symptoms range from mild to severe and often include fever, runny nose, sore throat, muscle pain, headache, coughing, and fatigue. These sympto ...
,
typhus Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposu ...
,
cholera Cholera () is an infection of the small intestine by some Strain (biology), strains of the Bacteria, bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea last ...
and
dysentery Dysentery ( , ), historically known as the bloody flux, is a type of gastroenteritis that results in bloody diarrhea. Other symptoms may include fever, abdominal pain, and a feeling of incomplete defecation. Complications may include dehyd ...
. Until the source documents were published in Moscow in 2004, some Russian historians had estimated the number of prisoners and the death toll to be much higher, estimating that the death toll ranged from 40,000 to more than 100,000. For example, Irina Mikhutina in her 1995 publications estimated the number of prisoners to be 165,000 and the death toll to be 70,000.Irina Mikhutina, ''How many Red Army soldiers died in Poland between 1919 and 1921?'', New and Newest History. 1995; Nr. 3; S. 64–69. (''Так сколько же военопленных погибло в польском плену'', Новая и новейшая история), ''Так была ли ошибка'',
Nezavisimaya Gazeta ( rus, Независимая газета, p=nʲɪzɐˈvʲisʲɪməjə ɡɐˈzʲetə, t=Independent Newspaper) is a Russian daily newspaper. History and profile Soviet Union was established by the Moscow Soviet in August 1990. Its first ed ...
, 13 January 2001
In 1998 Russian popular press reported that Polish
internment camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without Criminal charge, charges or Indictment, intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects ...
in
Tuchola Tuchola (; ) is a town in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship in northern Poland. The Pomeranian town, which is the seat of Tuchola County, had a population of 13,418 . Geographical location Tuchola lies about north of Bydgoszcz, close to th ...
was particularly notorious for the large number of Soviet
POW POW is "prisoner of war", a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict. POW or pow may also refer to: Music * P.O.W (Bullet for My Valentine song), "P.O.W" (Bull ...
's deaths and was dubbed a " death camp" by the Russian Emigrant press from within Poland.''
Nezavisimaya Gazeta ( rus, Независимая газета, p=nʲɪzɐˈvʲisʲɪməjə ɡɐˈzʲetə, t=Independent Newspaper) is a Russian daily newspaper. History and profile Soviet Union was established by the Moscow Soviet in August 1990. Its first ed ...
'',
The tragedy of Polish captivity
", July 16, 1998.
There have also been accusations from the Russian side that the death toll was influenced by the indifference of the camp authorities. Others accused the Russian side of using these numbers to justify the
Katyn massacre The Katyn massacre was a series of mass killings under Communist regimes, mass executions of nearly 22,000 Polish people, Polish military officer, military and police officers, border guards, and intelligentsia prisoners of war carried out by t ...
, the mass executions of Polish officers and intelligentsia in World War II. George Sanford, ''Katyn And The Soviet Massacre of 1940: Truth, Justice And Memory'', Routledge, 2005,
Google Print, p.8
/ref> Such usage has become known as " Anti-Katyn". The Russian historians arrived at this number by first estimating the number of POWs, then subtracting the number that has been repatriated to the Soviet Union after the hostilities ended, and then assuming that most of the remainder died in POW camps. Polish historians always countered this by arguing that: (a) the number of POWs was very difficult to estimate accurately, due to the chaotic situation prevailing for most of the war, and (b) many Soviet POWs lost that status after they switched sides and entered units fighting alongside Polish forces against the Red Army, or were transferred to the
Whites White is a racial classification of people generally used for those of predominantly European ancestry. It is also a skin color specifier, although the definition can vary depending on context, nationality, ethnicity and point of view. De ...
rather than the
Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...
. There was also the problem that significant number of Russian POWs were left in the territory of Poland since World War I (about 2,420,000 soldiers of the Russian Empire were taken captive by the
Central Powers The Central Powers, also known as the Central Empires,; ; , ; were one of the two main coalitions that fought in World War I (1914–1918). It consisted of the German Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulga ...
) and obviously when the Polish-Soviet conflict deteriorated, these POWs were not released to Russia.


Poland's losses

According to Polish historians Karpus and Alexandrowicz, similar number of Polish POWs died in Soviet and Lithuanian camps from 1919 to 1922 – about 20,000 out of about 51,000 captured.Karpus, Zbigniew, Alexandrowicz Stanisław, ''Zwycięzcy za drutami. Jeńcy polscy w niewoli (1919–1922). Dokumenty i materiały'' (Victors behind the fences. Polish POWs (1919–1922). Documents and materials). Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Mikołaja Kopernika w Toruniu, Toruń, 1995, After 1922 the Polish and Russian prisoners were also exchanged among two sides. Ekaterina Peshkova, the chairwoman of organization ''Assistance to Political Prisoners'' (Pompolit, ''Помощь политическим заключенным'', Помполит), was awarded an order of Polish Red Cross for her participation in the exchange of
POW POW is "prisoner of war", a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict. POW or pow may also refer to: Music * P.O.W (Bullet for My Valentine song), "P.O.W" (Bull ...
s after the Polish-Soviet War.Yaroslav Leontiev,
''Dear Ekaterina Pavlovna''
'', ''Russian Germany'', No. 24 – 2005.
''Fighters for the Human Rights''
,
Novaya Gazeta ''Novaya Gazeta'' (, ) is an independent Russian newspaper. It is known for its critical and investigative coverage of Russian political and social affairs, the Chechen wars, corruption among the ruling elite, and increasing authoritarianism i ...
, N81, 2002
During the memorial ceremony for the victims of the Katyn massacre on April 7, 2010, attended by the Russian and Polish Prime Ministers Vladimir Putin and Donald Tusk, Putin said that, in his private opinion, Stalin (whose refusal to obey orders from the Kremlin resulted in the Russian defeat against Poland in 1920) felt personally responsible for this tragedy, and carried out the executions of Polish officers in Katyn in 1940 out of a sense of revenge. The Russian Society of Military History called for a Kraków memorial of the Russian victims. In 2014, the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs published further archival documents of
International Red Cross The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is a aid agency, humanitarian organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, and is a three-time Nobel Prize laureate. The organization has played an instrumental role in the development of Law of ...
and
League of Nations The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...
missions that inspected the camps. The newly published documents are mostly in French and English.


See also

* Camps for soldiers of the UNR Army interned in Poland (1919–24) * Polish prisoners and internees in Soviet Russia and Lithuania (1919–21) * Polish prisoners-of-war in the Soviet Union after 1939 *
Finnish Civil War The Finnish Civil War was a civil war in Finland in 1918 fought for the leadership and control of the country between Whites (Finland), White Finland and the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic (Red Finland) during the country's transition fr ...


References


Further reading

* Stanisław Alexandrowicz (ed.), Zbigniew Karpus, Waldemar Rezmer. ''Tuchola : obóz jeńców i internowanych 1914–1923''. Cz. 1-2. Toruń 1997
digital copy
* Lazar Borysovich Glindin

{{DEFAULTSORT:Camps for Russian prisoners and internees in Poland (1919-1924) Polish–Soviet War Prisoner-of-war camps Military installations of Poland