Deportations from East Prussia during World War I
In 1914–1915, the Russian Empire forcibly deported local inhabitants from Russian-occupied areas of East Prussia to more remote areas of the empire, particularly Siberia. The official rationale was to reduce espionage and other resistance behind the Russian front lines.[1] As many as 13,600 people, including children and the elderly, were deported.[2] Due to difficult living conditions, the mortality rates were high, and only 8,300 people returned home after the war.[2]
The deportations had not received much attention from scholars, as they were overshadowed by the much larger refugee crisis in the Russian Empire[3] and the expulsion of Germans after World War II.[4]
Background
Military action began on the
Russians deeply distrusted the German population. Even before battles began,
Deportations
District | Deportees 1915 reports |
Deportees Fritz Gause (1931) |
---|---|---|
Allenstein |
3,040 | 3,410 |
Gumbinnen |
6,449 | 9,044 |
Königsberg | 1,196 | 1,112 |
Total | 10,685 | 13,566 |
In the occupied areas of East Prussia, Russians suspected civilians to be involved in resistance. The distrust was bolstered by cultural differences. For example, Germans owned and used bicycles that Russians associated with official or military business;[1] Germans were also not accustomed to carrying passports or other identity papers.[11] Local spies were used as scapegoats to justify military defeats.[3] Additionally, the removal of adult males reduced the number of potential new recruits when the German army returned.[10] The deportations started during the first Russian occupation, but were of smaller scale (at least 1,000 people)[4] and targeted primarily men of military age.[3] For example, out of 724 people deported from the Königsberg area only 10 were not adult males.[10] Deportations during the second occupation grew in number, and included many children, women, and the elderly.[3] In total, the deported people included about 4,000 women and 2,500 children.[10]
The people were herded on foot or transported using requisitioned wagons to train stations, mostly in
At the destination, living conditions and treatment of the deportees varied greatly. Some deportees were forced to work in mines or railway construction.[2] In other places, such as Astrakhan, the deportees had to first obtain work permits before they could find employment.[3] Yet in other places, such as Barnaul, the deportees were treated as prisoners and were guarded by armed soldiers.[13] Sometimes, the Russian administration provided a few kopeks per day to the deportees but amounts and conditions associated with these payments varied greatly.[3] The German government organized monthly stipends for deportees, but not everyone was able to receive it.[13] For example, according to Jankus, after May 1915, his deportee group received no assistance from either Russians or Germans for an entire year.[3]
In February 1915, Germany and Russia concluded an agreement for the mutual repatriation of civilian prisoners which provided that deportees, except for healthy males ages 17 to 45 that were fit for military duty, could return to their native country. However, many deportees lacked identity papers and the Russian authorities denied or delayed many passport applications.[3] In March 1917, after the February Revolution, the Russian Provisional Government revoked all extrajudicial punishments thus granting amnesty and freedom of movement to all deportees.[3] The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, signed in March 1918, provided a free-of-charge repatriation of civil prisoners, but the process was delayed due to the Russian Revolution and the Russian Civil War.[4] Generally, the deportees returned between 1919 and 1921.[14]
Relief efforts
Activists noticed the deportees and their deplorable conditions at the train stations, primarily in Vilnius, and organized help – provided food and clothing, exchanged
Lithuanian Care
At first, the Lithuanians wanted to join the Vilnius chapter of the All-Russian Society for the Care of Slavic Prisoners (
It was difficult to obtain information on the deportees from Russian officials and the Lithuanian Care had to send its own representatives to investigate the situation, register the deportees, and organize help. It sent
References
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4728-1355-8.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-119-96870-2.
- ^ S2CID 147932306.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-7849-9441-9.
- ISBN 978-0-313-33539-6.
- OCLC 183333553.
- ^ a b c d Arbušauskaitė, Arūnė Liucija (2016-11-21). "Prūsijos lietuviai – Rusijos caro tremtiniai Didžiajame kare (1914-1918)" (in Lithuanian). Šilainės kraštas. Retrieved 1 January 2018.
- ^ Pohl, J. Otto (2001). "The Deportation and Destruction of the German Minority in the USSR" (PDF). p. 5. Retrieved 1 January 2018.
- S2CID 55091759. Retrieved 1 January 2018.
- ^ S2CID 143861167.
- ^ OCLC 3220435.
- ^ ISSN 0134-3106.
- ^ ISSN 2080-7589.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-7849-9441-9.
- ISBN 978-1-8597-3578-7.
- ^ a b Sperskienė, Rasa (2014-09-09). "Lietuvių globa šelpti broliams lietuviams iš Prūsų Lietuvos". Lietuvos visuomenė Pirmojo pasaulinio karo pradžioje: įvykiai, draugijos, asmenybės (in Lithuanian). Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 1 January 2018.
- ^ "Globa". Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija (in Lithuanian). Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidybos centras. 2004-08-20. Retrieved 6 January 2018.
- ^ Sperskienė, Rasa (2017-05-30). "Globa". Lietuviškos partijos ir organizacijos Rusijoje 1917–1918 metais (in Lithuanian). Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 6 January 2018.