Repatriation Of Russian Prisoners Of War In The World War I

Abstract

The article is devoted to the review of the problem of repatriation of Russian prisoners of war in the conditions of rough political events in the first post war years. We tried to give a global vision of the research problem based on the theories of civilization relating to linear interpretation of social development of history. The World War I is considered as result of crisis of an industrial civilization here. On March 3, 1918 in Brest-Litovsk the separate peace between the Soviet Russia and the Central powers was signed, the 8th article of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk provided the return of prisoners of war from both sides home. However the Conditions of the Brest-Litovsk treaty on exchange of prisoners of war weren’t realized. In November, 1918 diplomatic relations between Germany and RSFSR were broken off, and the problem of return of prisoners of war home remained unresolved. The Russian prisoners’ of war way home was long because of a civil war, red and white terror and emigration, secession of Ukraine, Belarus, Transcaucasia and their accession to Russia as the new federal Soviet republics. Due to all these circumstances it is impossible to determine how many prisoners of war of World War I returned home, went to other countries or remained in Germany. Some Russian prisoners of war in Germany remained even in 1926.