Camps for Russian prisoners and internees in Poland (1919–1924)
Russian POW camps in Poland | |
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1919–1924 | |
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 and civilians, captured by Germany during World War I and left on Polish territory after the end of the war; and the Soviet military personnel captured during the Polish–Soviet War, the vast majority of them captured as a result of the battles of 1920. Locations of the camps included Strzałkowo, Pikulice, Wadowice, and Tuchola.
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.[1]
Background
During the
The camps
The bad conditions in these camps were known to public opinion in Poland at the time, as a number of Polish newspapers openly wrote about them, criticizing the government for not correcting the situation.[2] In modern times the issue has been addressed in a number of scholarly publications.[4]
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 as well as Prof. Gennady Matveyev from the Moscow State University. It was estimated by Karpus and Rezmer that the number of Russian POWs was near 110,000 and at least 157,000 by Matveyev.[2] [5] 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, typhus, cholera and dysentery.
Until the source documents were published in Moscow in 2004,
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.
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.[9]
After 1922 the Polish and Russian prisoners were also exchanged among two sides.
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.[13][14]
The Russian Society of Military History called for a Kraków memorial of the Russian victims.[15]
In 2014, the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs published further archival documents of
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
References
- ^ a b c d e "POLISH-RUSSIAN FINDINGS ON THE SITUATION OF RED ARMY SOLDIERS IN POLISH CAPTIVITY (1919–1922)". archiwa.gov.pl. NDAP. Archived from the original on 16 January 2009. Retrieved 17 May 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i 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
- .
a subsequent Russian-Polish enquiry concluded in 2004, the overwhelming majority of the Soviet POWs perished from diseases
- ^ ISBN 83-7174-956-2.
- ^ Г.Ф. Матвеев (G. Matveyev), "Еще раз о численности красноармейцев в польском плену в 1919–1920 годах. Vivos Voco – Astronet.ru
- ^ 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, 13 January 2001 "Так была ли "ошибка"?". Archived from the original on 2007-09-29. Retrieved 2007-07-01.
- ^ (in Russian)Nezavisimaya Gazeta, "The tragedy of Polish captivity Archived 2006-07-24 at the Wayback Machine", July 16, 1998.
- ISBN 83-231-0627-4
- ^ "Правозаступники". Archived from the original on 2012-07-16. Retrieved 2006-05-29.
- ^ Yaroslav Leontiev, Dear Ekaterina Pavlovna Archived 2007-03-11 at the Wayback Machine, Russian Germany, No. 24 – 2005. (in Russian)
- ^ (in Russian) Fighters for the Human Rights Archived 2012-07-16 at the Wayback Machine, Novaya Gazeta, N81, 2002
- ^ Associated Press, April 7, 2010, Putin says Stalin massacred Poles out of revenge [1] [dead link]
- ^ Associated Press, April 7, 2010, Putin says Stalin massacred Poles out of revenge [2]
- ^ "Row over Krakow's Russian POW memorial". thenews.pl. 9 October 2014. Archived from the original on 18 October 2014. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
- ^ "Jeńcy radzieccy w Polsce. Archiwalia Międzynarodowego Komitetu Czerwonego Krzyża i Ligi Narodów". msz.gov.pl. 10 October 2014. Archived from the original on 15 October 2014. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
Further reading
- Stanisław Alexandrowicz (ed.), Zbigniew Karpus, Waldemar Rezmer. Tuchola : obóz jeńców i internowanych 1914–1923. Cz. 1-2. Toruń 1997 (digital copy) (in Polish)
- Lazar Borysovich Glindin: Letters to Olga Gindin from the western front and captivity (in Russian)