Russian prisoners of war in the first world war. POWs of the first world war

POWs of the First World War in Siberia

Historical and legal aspects of the problem

The most accurate data are presented by the Central Commission for Prisoners of War and Refugees - Centrifuge, created in accordance with the decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR dated 01.01.01 and then transformed into Tsentroevak. At the disposal of the Centrifuge received all the new materials of the Russian bodies involved in the registration of prisoners of war. According to the final data of the Centrifuge, and then of Tsentroevak, summed up by the years., The total number of prisoners of war who belonged to the armies of the central powers and were registered on the territory of Russia was about 2 people.

In order to represent the ethnic composition of the prisoners of war, it should be noted that during the First World War, among those on active military service in the armed forces of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, about 25% were Austrians and Germans, 23% - Hungarians, 13% - Czechs, 4% - Slovaks, 9% - Serbs and Croats, 2% - Slovenes, 3% - Ukrainians, 7% - Romanians and 1% - Italians.

Accommodation of prisoners of war by provinces and the rules for their distribution

As already mentioned, according to the Russian General Staff, in the open spaces from the Dnieper to The Pacific turned out to be over 2 million soldiers and officers of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey. "Guided by considerations of a military and political nature, the tsarist administration intended to place prisoners in places far from the administrative and economic centers." As the newspaper "Yeniseiskaya Mysl" reported in one of the April issues of 1915, only Krasnoyarsk got a man, Kansk, Achinsk - 2,300. But besides the Yenisei province, there were many other places where involuntary prisoners were sent. This is the Urals, Turkestan, and, of course, all of Siberia and the Far East. Here are some figures taken from a unique publication - "Siberian Soviet encyclopedia", Which show how many prisoners of war ended up in a huge territory from the Ural Mountains to Primorye: Tobolsk - 5,000 people, Tyumen and Kurgan - the same amount, Chelyabinsk - 1,200, Omsk -, Novonikolaevsk -, Barnaul - 2,500, Ust - Kamenogorsk - 1,000, Tomsk - 5,200, Biysk - 3,000, Irkutsk, Nizhneudinsk - 2,200, Troitskoslavsk - 6,700, Verkhneudinsk - 8,500, Berezovka (special military town) -, Chita -, Sretensk -, Nerchinsk - 2,500, Dauria -, Nikolsk-Ussuriisky -, Spasskoe - 8,000, Blagoveshchensk - 5,000, Shkotovo - 3,200, Razdolnoe - 8,300, Krasnaya Rechka - 900, Khabarovsk - 5,000. by 1916 has reached man.

In the ever-increasing number of prisoners, tsarism saw a source of cheap labor force capable of replacing the workers and peasants of Russia who were drafted into the army. Sharing his delight with the tsarina over the next message he received "On the capture of thousands of enemies," Nicholas II wrote: "How many new hands to work in our fields and factories!" But if initially it was planned to place prisoners mainly beyond the Urals, then quite soon "the influx of huge masses of prisoners and the lack of manpower prompted the tsarist government, already in 1915, to start placing prisoners throughout the country."

Germans, Austrians and Hungarians were considered less reliable than prisoners Slavic nationalities and Romanians, therefore royal authorities preferred to place them mainly behind the Urals, while the prisoners of the Slavs and Romanians were kept in the European part of Russia. In European Russia, there were numerous camps (from 2,000 sub-people), in Siberia - larger ones, which simultaneously contained pre-war prisoners.

In relation to the Slavs prisoners of war, Russia pursued a special policy. The tsarist government, of course, could not ignore the sympathetic mood of the Russian public in relation to the captive representatives of the fraternal peoples, the influence of the Czechoslovak community and its own geopolitical interests. Since the Czechs and Slovaks prisoners of war were considered trustworthy, the Ministry of War proposed the creation of combat formations from them as part of the Russian army. However, the prisoners, only recently snatched from bloody battles, did not want to return to the ranks, especially under a false flag. Therefore, the position of the Czechoslovak prisoners of war in Russia was the most unenviable. Unreliable Germans and Magyars were sent to Siberia and Turkestan, while the Czechoslovaks and other Slavs were left in the center of Russia, where they had to perform hard work in the worst conditions. And since it was noticed that the worse the conditions were, the more volunteers were enrolled in the Czechoslovak troops, the conditions of detention and work of the Slavic prisoners of war began to worsen as much as possible. As a result, thousands of prisoners died from typhus, scurvy and hunger, were constantly subjected to severe punishments and beatings. The result of such "agitation" was that the Czechoslovak prisoners subsequently began to register everywhere as Germans or Magyars, whom no one touched.

"In total in Russia by 1917 there were more than 400 prisoner of war camps, including in the Petrograd military district - 15, in the Moscow - 128, Kazan - 113, Irkutsk - 30, Omsk - 28".

According to Art. 50 of the Regulations "On Prisoners of War" the main command of all prisoners of war on the territory of the Empire belonged to the Ministry of War. The civilian authorities pledged to provide all possible assistance to the military commanders.

The placement and distribution of prisoners of war was also carried out on the basis of the Regulations "On prisoners of war". From the location of the active forces, prisoners of war formed in the party were sent to assembly points, where they were under the supervision of the district military commanders until they were sent to their destination for work (Articles 25-28 of the Regulations). In each assembly point, created under the administration of the district chief, special alphabetical lists were kept in which the prisoners of war arriving at the assembly points were entered, and the places where the prisoners of war would be sent from the assembly point were indicated in the lists.

POW parties were formed and sent taking into account the rank of prisoners (for example, senior officers were housed in class 1 and 2 carriages (Articles 38-41); at the same time, the teams were divided into platoons, half-companies, companies, and even larger units, and to command them appointed officers from among the prisoners (article 54 of the Regulations "On prisoners of war").

On the ground, prisoners of war were to be accommodated in free barracks, in the absence of such - in private houses, without fail in barracks, guided by the Charter on Zemsky Obligations (Articles 463 and 532 - in relation to satisfaction general requirements on residential premises); officers who made a pledge on their word of honor that they would not be removed outside the designated area were given the right to live in private apartments in the area where the unit was located (Articles 56, 58 of the Regulations on Prisoners of War).

For comparison, let us briefly consider the situation of Russian prisoners of war in Germany and the states allied with it. In total, there were 6 million prisoners in Germany during the First World War. About 3.8 million of them were prisoners of war and interned civilians from Russia.

It should be noted that initially the labor of prisoners of war in Germany was not planned to be widely used, especially in industry and agriculture, due to the fact that there was unemployment in Germany, which remained in a fairly large volume even after the start of the war. It was only at the beginning of 1915 that a shortage of labor began to be felt. Therefore, already in December 1914, most of the prisoners of war were transferred to the work teams (Arbeitskommando), and only a few of them remained in the camps. Russian prisoners of war were used mainly in agriculture and in heavy work, for example, in mines. Naturally, prisoners of war regularly attempted to escape. If such attempts failed, the prisoners were returned not to the work teams, but to the camps, which meant the deterioration of their situation. To prevent this from happening, special and penalty camps were created in the rear zones and areas of the Reich, where prisoners of war were subjected to a strict regime and were forced to perform the most difficult work. In cases of refusal to perform work, the prisoners were put on bread and water, and in the front-line and front-line areas, prisoners of war were arrested, tied to a pole and deprived of food. Such data are cited by the German researcher Iris Lenzen.

Russian scientists cite much darker facts. In Austria-Hungary in 1917, "physically working" citizens were given 140 g of corn flour per day, about 80 g for those not engaged in physical labor, 1 kg of bread for soldiers for three, prisoners of war for four, in connection with which some of the prisoners died from exhaustion, not reaching the rear. In Germany, the situation was no better. The prisoners received 200 g of bread per person per day, and the flour content in it did not exceed 15%, the rest was pine sawdust. All this, as well as work in the most difficult conditions, led to enormous mortality. In addition, the system of corporal punishment practiced in Germany and Austria-Hungary did not contribute to survival. In Germany, prisoners were often used instead of draft animals, mocked, beaten; the population was brought up in a spirit of contempt and hatred for the prisoners. In Austria-Hungary, in addition to punishment with rods, shackling of hands and feet from several hours to several days, hanging on hands twisted backward, hammering into a coffin for 2-3 hours was also used. In 1916, the High Command of the Russian Army received information that for refusing to dig trenches, the Austrians crucified dozens of our prisoners of war in trees, and about 150 people were killed. At the same time, escape from captivity in the event of the capture of the fugitive was punishable by death. In the occupied territory, the Austro-Hungarian troops also executed those who gave protection to the fugitives. The punishments were somewhat softened only by the end of 1917.

It is generally recognized that prisoners of war were used in violation of Art. 6 of the Hague Convention, for work for military purposes, however, such violations were committed, perhaps, by all countries participating in the war.

The position of prisoners of war on the territory of Russia was somewhat better, but also far from perfect. The supply of lower-ranking prisoners with food and things was usually carried out according to the lowest grade assigned to soldiers. For example, according to orders of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief No. 000 and No. 000 for 1916, lunch with bread for the lower ranks cost 31 kopecks, without bread - 23 kopecks; for prisoners of war in the theater of military operations - 19 kopecks, without bread - 12 kopecks, dinner, respectively - 16 and 12 kopecks. for the lower ranks and 10 and 7 kopecks. for prisoners of war. Along with similar categories of Russian soldiers, only sick prisoners and orderlies from prisoners were provided, who looked after acutely infectious patients. The same was the case with the supply of prisoners of war things. A telegram to the troops of the commander of the Romanian Front (June 1916) testifies that the items of uniform and footwear of the worst quality were distributed to hospitals, workers' squads, prisoners of war, etc.

However, it should be noted that the situation of prisoners of war in Siberia was somewhat better than in most regions of Russia.

As mentioned above, on the territory of Siberia, the Main Directorate of the General Staff placed mostly less reliable prisoners in comparison with the Slavs and Romanians. Thus, about the Germans, Austrians and Hungarians got to the territory of Siberia. A significant part of these prisoners of war was placed in two Siberian military districts: Omsk (territory Western Siberia) and Irkutsk (Eastern Siberia). On the territory of the Irkutsk Military District, there were about 30 large concentration camps for prisoners of war, of which the largest was in Krasnoyarsk.

Accommodation of prisoners of war in Siberia

Prisoners of war arrived in Siberia in separate groups, from small to fairly large. Their appearance has always aroused the keenest interest of the local community.

For example, the newspaper Vecherny Krasnoyarsk tells about the meeting of the first batch of prisoners of war in Krasnoyarsk on September 18, 1914. Even despite the eight-hour train delay, most of those who met patiently waited for the prisoners to arrive: “At about 2 am a train with prisoners of war approaches the Krasnoyarsk station. Despite the late hour, they do not sleep. IN open doors gray and black overcoats, gray caps, copper helmets covered with gray canvas are seen. The train goes non-stop to the military post. After 5 minutes, prisoners were thrown out of the carriage ... Austrian officers very willingly come into contact with the public, the German ones behave arrogantly, ... they are surrounded by our soldiers and Cossacks. There are conversations, inquiries. "

The arrived prisoners of war were placed in the Krasnoyarsk concentration camp. The Krasnoyarsk camp was housed in barracks: “4 barracks were located on the banks of the Yenisei opposite the railway bridge. The other 4 are in the military town. Each barrack was surrounded by barbed wire and had 4 security posts. " In the camp got 12 thousand prisoners of war, but by 1916 there were 13 thousand of them. So, in Kansk got 5,000, in Achinsk, in Irkutsk prisoners of war.

Labor of prisoners of war and regulations governing it

In September 1914, the tsar instructed the Council of Ministers to develop a system of measures to attract prisoners of war to work. On October 7, the government approved the Rules "On the procedure for providing prisoners of war for the performance of state and public works at the disposal of the departments concerned." On October 10, the Rules "On the admission of prisoners of war to work on the construction of railways by private companies" appeared, and on March 17, 1915 - "On the release of prisoners of war for work in private industrial enterprises."

Entrepreneurs were given freedom of action. Such an order was found in the funds of the state archive of the Novosibirsk region for the Tomsk concentration camp dated August 8, 1915, No. 26: “With the new barracks, prisoners of war from among 300 people, sent to agricultural work at the disposal of the head Altai subdistrict ”- it said.

In the fall of 1914 - in the winter of 1915, 700 prisoners from the Krasnoyarsk camp "worked on improving roads from Krasnoyarsk to the village of Startsevoy, from Krasnoyarsk to the Znamensk women's monastery, from the village of Kubekovo to the village of Chastnostrovsky." In the spring and summer of 1915, prisoners of war from the Achinsk and Krasnoyarsk camps worked on the repair of the post routes Achinsk - Minusinsk and Krasnoyarsk - Yeniseisk.

Averbach. Op. Part 1.P. 340.

Bulletin of the Omsk City Public Administration. 1915.No. 2.P. 9.

See: Internationalists. Workers foreign countries- participants in the struggle for the power of the Soviets. Moscow: Nauka, 1967.S. 24-25.

Bernat J. From the memoirs of a teacher: Hungarian internationalists in the Great October Socialist Revolution. Novosibirsk: Military Publishing. P. 304.

Bulletin of the Omsk City Administration. 1915. No. 2.P. 934.

In the flames of the revolution. Irkutsk, 1957, p. 9.

Internationalists in battles for Soviet power / Ed. ... M .: Mysl ', 1965.S. 25.

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Books

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• Under the protection of Russian generosity POWs of the First World War in the Saratov Volga Region 1914-1922, Kalyakina A. The book by Alexandra Kalyakina tells in detail about the stay of prisoners of war during the First World War in the Saratov Volga Region, comprehensively and holistically covering many acute issues of this ...

When the ground moans

More than half of the countries then existing in the world took part in the First World War. The military whirlwinds also pulled the population of the Verkhnesavskaya and Sochanskaya valleys into their whirlpool. The latter became the site of the most fierce battles. At the front in the valley of the Sochi River (its Italian name Isozzo is mentioned in E. Hemingway's novel Farewell to Arms! - approx. Transl.), Known in Slovenia as the Sosch Front, the largest military operations took place in Slovenian lands. Here, on the most dangerous sections of the front, with huge losses, most of the Slovenian regiments fought selflessly. Almost all the formations manned by Slovenes were thrown into the Italian front - the Austro-Hungarian monarchy used the inherent sense of the Slovenian population, a sense of the threat to their ethnic territories from Italy, sending Slovenian soldiers to the hottest points of the fighting. Therefore, it is not surprising that there were such large losses among the Slovenes. Slovenian soldiers were recruited into the army from those territories that today are no longer part of the Slovenian lands: from Carinthia, Styria, Porabia, from Gorica and Trieste. Slovenes from Benechia (part of Italy) fought like Italian soldiers. There were about ten thousand victims among the Slovenes. The victims also included those Slovenian soldiers who died in Italian captivity.

In the strategic plans, the Italian front was not given a central place, but it was here, in the Slovenian mountains, from where the Italians planned to break into the very heart of the monarchy, that the most bloody battles were fought. The line of the fountain passed mainly in the mountains above a narrow gorge through which the Soča River flows, only near Goritsa, which widens into a valley.

After Italy went over to the side of the Entente and declared war on Austria-Hungary on May 23, 1915, the Italians planned to make a quick breakthrough to Ljubljana and Vienna through the Ljubljana Gate. The Austro-Hungarian military leadership first planned a retreat towards Ljubljana, but, fortunately, then nevertheless decided to strengthen the defenses on the front line bordering the Soča River. This decision protected most of the Slovenian territories from complete military and environmental devastation, and local residents from eviction. The Italian offensive was soon suspended, and a long, exhaustive trench war... After the initial active movements on the fronts of the First World War, by the fall of 1914, the fighting moved into the Stellungskrieg phase, when the opponents fortified their positions, digging in for a long period. The main type of military action was shelling and limited forays of infantry and, occasionally, large battles. Fighting deployed in the valley of the Sochi River were a typical example of this kind of warfare.

The successes of the Italian army, which launched four offensives during 1915, were extremely insignificant. The Austro-Hungarian 5th Army, under the command of Svetozar Borojevic, a Serb by origin, with significantly less manpower and military equipment, managed, however, to organize an exceptionally successful defense along the Soča River and a piece of karst. The Italians managed to achieve their first success only in their sixth offensive, occupying Gorica and the Doberdobskoe plateau. The subsequent three more autumn Italian offensives again did not bring them significant success. In the tenth battle of Vršić, in May and June 1917, the Italians managed to break through to the western edge of the Banj plateau. Later, in August and September, in the 11th offensive in a row, the Italians advanced even further, solidly entrenched on this plateau. However, they failed to completely break the resistance of the defending Austro-Hungarian troops.

In an effort to reduce the danger of the Italian onslaught on the front along the Socha River, the Austrians and Germans developed a plan for a joint offensive, known in history as the 12th battle or the miracle of Kobarid. On October 24, 1917, the German-Austrian combined forces, after a preliminary artillery bombardment with a gas attack, broke through the front line near the cities of Bovec and Tolmin, closing a ring at Kobarid around the Italian forces located in the Krno Highlands. The success achieved thus far exceeded all expectations. Italian troops first withdrew behind Tilmet (Tagliamento), and the front line, with the help of the allies, was established only in early November and passed on the Piave River, where it remained until the collapse of the central forces. This "miracle", along with a number of historical records, is described in the novel by Ernest Hemingway "A Farewell to Arms!", Where the author emphasizes the stubbornness with which the Austrian soldiers fought, the bitterness of the soldiers who defended this mountainous region from the Italians. But he doesn't understand them. On the other hand, the Slovenian writer Prezihov Voranc, who described it in his novel Prezihov Voranc, "Doberdob", is absolutely clear about the situation on this front. The fact is that Slovenian detachments fought there, the soldiers of which were well aware that they were fighting for their native land.

Russian prisoners of war. During the war from 1914 to 1915, Austrian troops captured thousands of prisoners on the eastern front.

Russian prisoners of war

It should first be explained where this happened in Austria. a large number of Russian prisoners of war. From August 1914 Austrian formations fought against the Russians in Poland, Galicia, the Carpathians and Bukovina. In some successful battles (Limanova - Papanov in December 1914, Tarnoe - Gorlitsy in May-June 1915, Exactly in September 1915, Bukovina in December 1915, Sedmograshko from September to December 1916, the Central forces on the eastern front in the summer of 1917), the central forces captured a large number of Russian and Romanian prisoners of war. According to official data, their total number was 1.268.000. In the tsarist army there were soldiers of various nationalities: Ukrainians, Belarusians, Georgians, Volga Germans, Jews, etc. Usually all of them, without distinction, were called Russian soldiers, and later - Russian prisoners of war. From the territories of hostilities they were taken to the rear, where they were first concentrated at the headquarters of the corps command, and from there they were transported to assembly camps, where they were copied and interrogated. Patients with contagious diseases were sent to quarantine. We list several camps that existed in the rear of the front in Soča and the maximum possible number of prisoners held in them: Grodig near Salzburg (30,000 people), Marchtrenk near Linz (28,000 people), Kleinmunchen

Wegscheid near Linz (the largest camp in Austria for 57,000 people), Hart near Amstettn (27,000 people), Freistadt in Upper Austria (30,000 people), Feldbach in Styria (47,000 people), Sternthal (Strnisce near Ptuj, in present time

Kidrichevo) (37,000 people), Knittelfeld in Styria (22,000 people), Spratzern in St.Pelten (50,000 people).

There were far fewer POWs in these camps than indicated here, since they were sent to work, seconded to the belligerent units, or somewhere else.

In the second half of 1915, prisoners of war in the camps began to be organized into departments, depending on the purpose, for example, KGFArbeiterabteilung (workers' department), or, for example, KGF Eisenbahn Arbeiterabteilung (railway workers' department), as well as KGF Lasttragerabteilun (porters' department). There could be up to 500 prisoners of war in the departments. The workers of these departments were sent to help the army in the field, to the front. In 1916, such a department (with the military designation KgfArbAbt and a department number) numbered 250 people. In June 1917, the Abteilung (branch) designation was changed to Kompagnie (detachment). In November 1917, after the 12th offensive at the front on the Socha River, prisoners of war collected the remnants of the munition abandoned on the battlefield by Italian troops. These compounds were called KGF Bergekompagnien.

Through the mediation of the Red Cross, the prisoners of war had some kind of connection with their loved ones, since they were sent mail and parcels from home. Postal communications were carried out through Sweden. If money was sent from the house, the camp guards gave the prisoners only two crowns a day.

The hardest work - building a military road through Vršić

After the declaration of war by Italy, the Slovenian lands of Krajna and Goriška ended up in the engere Kriegsgebiet. The civil authorities had to be completely subordinate to the military. According to historical sources, from Belyak through Korensko saddle to the Kranjskohora side, “a hundred young riflemen” were immediately redeployed. All bridges, roads and the Podkoren crossing were occupied. The civilians' movements were extremely limited. Even in the villages themselves, residents were constantly checked, and everyone had to have an identity card with them. In the next few days, cargoes began to arrive in Kranjska Gora one by one by trains, they say, sometimes, there were up to a hundred of them a day. By railroad brought up military equipment, guns, ammunition, food - everything that the front needed. The peasants were supposed to provide assistance in transportation, were obliged to provide draft animals on demand. In June 1915, Hungarian infantrymen, the so-called Honvedians, appeared in Kranjsko Gora and completely overwhelmed it. Their detachments belonged to the 20th division of the Honvedians. The hospital was set up in the hotel "At the post office", a dressing point at the chaplain. There, residents often saw the wounded who came for medical help, the seriously wounded were taken in special, covered gray carts. A bakery was made in the garden of the priest's house. When the Hungarian soldiers left, the 44th entered Kranjska Gora. rifle division, in which many Slovenes served. Gradually, refugees from the Upper Posochye (Bovets town with its surroundings) also gathered here. They brought with them typhus, which grew into a real epidemic - until October 1915, about 50 people died from it.

According to various testimonies, from 10,000 to 12,000 prisoners of war, mainly Russians, were brought to the Kranjsko Gora region in 1915 for the construction of the road. Some of the prisoners were also employed in work on the railway and cable car, on clearing the road along the valley, in warehouses, in the hospital and in other places. The Austrian military command was aware that it would not be able to successfully defend the basin around Bovec without normal supply of the front. The then existing road through the Predel Pass was under fire from enemy artillery, so transportation along it was carried out only at night. The supply was also carried out through an underground passage connecting the old mine in the Rabeli Gorge with the Log near Mangrt. However, the available roads were insufficient for uninterrupted supply of the warring army in Krno and Kaninskoe Pohorje, as well as near Bovec. Therefore, it was decided to build a mountain road from Kranjska Gora to the Sochi river valley through the Vršić pass, where until now only a temporarily laid mountain trail led. In the fall of 1914, the first preparatory work for the construction of the road began.

The first 25 Siberian prisoners of war ended up in Kranjska Gora in September 1914. More and more parties of prisoners followed them. In July 1915, more than 5,000 Russian prisoners of war were brought to Kranjska Gora and settled in a village near Razorie. Later they brought at least twice more. The area began to resemble a real rear transshipment point, whose inhabitants were forced to bear the heavy burden of wartime: barracks, field kitchens and hospitals, bakeries, butchers' shops, baths, laundries, warehouses, loaded front supply columns, a power station and other objects - all this Kranjska Gora's life was suddenly flooded with everyday military life. And in the town itself, army builders erected more than 100 barracks - not even the most beautiful gardens were spared. A field hospital was set up in the garden near the hotel Slavets, a massacre was placed in the courtyard of the priest's house in five barracks, and a bathhouse was organized. In the village of Podkoren there were many so-called "marching companies" - marching detachments, ready to be sent to the front, which were trained for only 3-5 weeks, and then immediately sent to the battlefield.

Since the entire male population of the villages was mobilized into the army, prisoners of war were gradually included in the work, who became the main labor force of all military institutions in the rear located directly on the approaches to the front. But the main occupation of prisoners of war in the Slovenian territories during the war was the construction of a road to Vršić; they also participated in the construction of a military water pipeline, the route of which ran along the Ternovsky forest in the direction of Postojna, and some worked on peasant farms. Accurate statistics on the number of Russian prisoners of war who ended up in Slovenia, who died here, etc. will probably never be available. The rights of prisoners of war were protected by international agreements and laws. They determined their rights, duties, as well as the duties towards them of the states in which they were captured (payment for compulsory work, differences in status between an officer and a common soldier). However, during the First World War, there was no consistent observance of the conventions, prisoners of war were forced to engage in hard physical labor with an extremely meager diet.

In Kranjska Gora, on the banks of the Pishnitsa River, which flows into the Sava Dolinka, a large barrack village has emerged. On the way to Klin and in the village itself, on the place where the Russian Chapel now stands, next to the Erjavchev house and everywhere where there was a place, including on the southern side of Vršić, in Trent and along the valley of the Soča river to Log, appeared many wooden houses of different sizes. The houses were with stone foundations, which are still preserved in some places, for example, near the Eryavchevoy house. The prisoners of war, who built and then followed the road, lived in special barracks, which stood in separate groups, camps. The largest were - the northern camp - Nordlager - on the road to the north from the Erjavchevo house, and the southern camp - Sudlager - two kilometers from the top of Vršić mountain, from the side of Trenta. In addition to living quarters for prisoners, each camp had a kitchen, a bakery, a first-aid post, and warehouses.

By order of the Austrian command, prisoners of war carried out various types of construction road works... So, they widened the narrow mountain road that ran through the Pishnitsa river valley, adapting it for road transport. Under the guidance of mainly Austrian specialists, the inept soldiers' hands of the prisoners, simultaneously carried out various earthworks in different places, built viaducts and bridges, and cut stone. The prisoners were also used in the expansion of the railway station in Kranjska Gora and in other places. They lived in large, poorly heated barracks, they were poorly fed, moreover, they were busy every day, from morning till night, on heavy physical work... Due to the mountainous working conditions, bad weather, cold and moisture, there were frequent cases of serious serious illnesses and injuries among them, often ending in death. After the war, some eyewitnesses in their memoirs also wrote about the cruel, inhuman treatment of Russian prisoners by military guards. Prisoners also died singly, and during epidemics - in large groups. Reading about the harsh treatment of prisoners of war and the hard backbreaking work of prisoners, let's not forget that the Austrian command was in a great hurry, fearing the approaching winter. At the end of the summer of 1915, they managed to stop the Italian advance, and then it became clear that the military formations would have to spend the winter in the highlands. In a short time - a few weeks left before the first snow - it was necessary to build all the infrastructure that would provide the army with housing and the ability to supply everything necessary. The road to Vršić played a key role in this.

The construction of the road was supervised by a specially selected headquarters of Austrian formations, among which there were also several civilians. The military construction, technical and engineering formations (as they would say in the modern army) also took part, starting with tracing and measuring the road to Trenta. A huge amount of materials was brought to Kranjska Gora, and at the same time, more and more new parties of Russian prisoners of war were constantly arriving. The route to Trenta was divided into 12 or 13 sections; an engineer was put in charge of each section. Work began in all areas at the same time. The civil engineers were mainly Czech Germans and also a few Hungarians. The construction work was supervised by the engineer Koehler, and the leadership of all preparatory and other works was a Czech German, then a major, Karl Riml, who later married a wealthy local resident Maria Hribar and lived in Kranjska Gora until 1925. The Russians considered him a good man... The first section of the road - from Kranjska Gora along Pisnica, where there was no Lake Jasna at that time, to the Erika hotel, was led by the Slovenian engineer Beshtr, who was disliked by his German colleagues, including many Jews, because of his Slavic origin. The construction management was located in Kranjska Gora, and then in the house built by Karl Riml (Riml Hutte), now it is the House in the Forest. The administration of the individual plots was also located in the Eryavche house (Vosshutte) and in the Slovenische Hutte, the present Tiharyev house. The road under construction was named in honor of the Archduke Eugen - "Erzherzog Eugen Strasse". It passed through the same place as the road that has come down to our days, but only at the Russian chapel, it skirted the mountain on the left and went directly to the House in the Forest. Its remains are still visible.

Russian workers at the construction of a road, Vršić, summer 1915. The paradise of Zlatorog's domain changed overnight, filled with the noise of working mechanisms, the roar of exploding rocks blocking the way, the groans of people, the clatter of shovels and hoes hammering the stony soil. Fathers, husbands and sons, in whose veins Slavic blood flowed, people of all ages, in inhuman efforts and torments, by October 1915, completed the construction of a 30-kilometer road leading to the front.

Work on the construction of the road began in the summer of 1915, immediately after the snow melted. The construction involved only Russian prisoners of war, divided by 25 people in a group. They were guarded by two - an Austrian soldier and a Russian translator, as usual, a Jew. The latter didn't work. Among the prisoners of war there were a large number of Volga Germans. When the Italian prisoners of war captured at the front were driven along the road, the Russians scolded them and scoffed them as best they could, striving to hit them with a shovel and so on, so they took out their rage on them. According to the surviving testimonies, the guards sometimes had difficulty in repelling the Italians from the attacks of the Russians. The fact is that the prisoners of war considered Italy, which replaced the allies and declared war on Austria, to be the culprit in their terrible fate.

Raising morale, self-confidence and pride was an important part of psychological preparation soldier. The impetus for the Austrian soldiers was the image of the commander-in-chief of the southwestern front, Archduke Eugen. Therefore, an imposing monument was erected to him on Vršić, symbolizing the greatness of Austria. Only in the manufacture of the body of the monument were employed about 200 prisoners of war. Franz Uranus and some other local residents warned the command that the site chosen for the installation of the monument was very unsuitable due to the avalanche danger of the site. Those responsible for the construction of the monument argued that the sculpture would be so durable that it would not be afraid of any natural disasters. Time has shown, however, that they were wrong.

Freight cable car

To maximize the capacity of transport from Kranjska Gora through Vršić, a cable car was extended, believing that in the winter months, due to snow drifts, the transportation of goods on the road would be complicated, and their delivery would only be possible with the help of a cargo lift. The starting point of the cable car was on the west side of the railway station. The cable car consisted of several sections, the length of which depended on the angle of inclination. On level areas, the bays were longer (approximately three kilometers), and where there was a large slope - from one to two kilometers. The first two compartments, up to Klin, were 3 km long and went straight south. The third compartment, from Klin and beyond, went at a right angle to the west and was about a kilometer long. The stop between the III and IV compartments was located not far from the water source; The IV compartment was a little more than a kilometer long, and the stop between the IV and V compartments was set 100 meters from the Eryavchevoy house. The V compartment, due to the steep ascent, was the shortest - less than 500 meters. Before reaching the terminal station of the cable car in Trent, the cargo had to pass four more intermediate stations. The cable car reached Church and was halfway between Lepena and Bovec. The load was supposed to weigh no more than 100 kg and was attached to a handle located directly on the main steel rope, in much the same way as on modern lifts. In some places, the ropes sagged very much, so that the load was too close to the ground. There, hungry prisoners and other workers sometimes intercepted the cargo. For the theft of cargo, the prisoner often paid with his life. The cable car transported 250 tons of cargo per day. Currently, a power line runs along the route of that cable car through Vršić. The ruins of the ski lift stations are still visible here and there (under the top of the Vršić pass, in Shuptsy nad Trenta). Due to the proximity of the front during the war, life in Kranjska Gora, Vršić and Trent was very turbulent. To facilitate the implementation of all the tasks set by wartime, in September 1916 the inhabitants of Kranjska Gora agreed with the military authorities that a power plant would be built in the town of Baba on Pishnitsa. A year later, its construction was completed. Before that, powerful units stood in the courtyard of Slavets' house and in the house of Gregor Zherjav. One after another, freight trains came to Kranjska Gora carrying soldiers to the front. There they were delayed for several days or weeks, depending on the situation at the front or the orders of the command. Long columns of soldiers then marched along the road through Vršić towards the front line. The construction of the road proceeded at an exceptionally fast pace. The prisoners of war worked without rest: they blew up the rocks blocking the path, carried stones to strengthen the roadbed, covered them with gravel, built and strengthened retaining walls located above and below the road, erected bridges and viaducts. Severe weather conditions in the mountains, cold, torn uniforms, lack of other clothing and footwear, poor food, primitive living conditions in poorly heated barracks, lack of hygiene products and other inconveniences caused various, in particular, gastrointestinal and other infectious diseases, ending death. Italian sources contain information that Austro-Hungarian soldiers brought cholera to the Italian front from the eastern front, which spread there in the summer of 1915 and 1916, including among the civilian population. The same sources report that typhus appeared in the military formations in the upper reaches of Sochi, the source of which, allegedly, were not removed corpses that poisoned the sources of drinking water. There were also reports of cases of smallpox, against which doctors called for vaccinations. The seriously ill were returned to the prisoner of war camps, from where they were brought for construction.

The relentless logic of war, the cruelty of relations between people, which reached the point of stupidity of all senses, from day to day reduced the ranks of prisoners of war. Their lives were taken away not only by hunger, cold and infectious diseases, but also by many accidents and accidents at construction, during explosions and other hard work. The cannonade coming from the front grew louder with each battle, and the initial fear was replaced by a humble habit of this eerie music that was heard on the other side of the mountain pass. During the construction of the road, the prisoners turned into bricklayers, builders, foresters, but above all, porters and laborers, who, with their worn out calloused hands, sweat and the blood of their emaciated bodies, built the road to Vršić, meter by meter, kilometer by kilometer. They paid for this road with their lives, along this road more and more soldiers went to the front, and more often to death. The death toll among Italian and Austro-Hungarian soldiers in the battles on the Soča River totals more than one hundred thousand people. On both belligerent sides there were Slovenes (in the Italian troops - the Slovenes from Benechia, which we have already mentioned). Russian prisoners of war buried their dead comrades right next to the road, symbolically marking modest hills with wooden crosses. Time hid the last refuge of the dead. Burials of large groups of deceased prisoners of war were carried out in military cemeteries in Kranjska Gora, Trent or in Soča, as well as near mountain shelters, in the villages of Huda Raven, Leme and in other places.

The road through Vršić, 30 km long, according to the testimony of contemporaries, was distinguished by a daring design. At the same time, most likely, it was taken into account that it would be used in peacetime as well. The movement along it began in November, i.e. before the beginning of winter 1915 -1916. Archduke Friedrich visited the Kranjskohora front supply base, the construction of the road, as well as the front line of the front, and in December also the Archduke Eugen. The road was named after him, and at its opening - what a luxury for wartime! - a waterfall was launched over the artificially made terraces.

Along the road, the transportation of various cargoes necessary for front-line formations began immediately, while the soldiers walked along it to the front on foot through Vršić to Krnsko or Kaninsko Pohorje or to Bovec.

Avalanches are a common phenomenon in the nature of mountains.

Civilian builders and local residents, who knew well the vagaries of the local mountains, more than once warned the road management about the great danger of avalanches in the vicinity of the road, especially after heavy rainfall or during the spring snow melt. Leaders paid little heed to these warnings, trusting in their own knowledge. With a wave of their hand, they replied that, they say, we are old specialists in avalanches! The only means of protection, which, on the initiative of an avalanche expert and forest inspector Franz Uranus, they nevertheless went, was an avalanche protection with wooden canopies over the road, but only in some places. Ljubljana timber merchant Ivan Zakotnik went to the city of Belyak and agreed with the army command of General Rohr's group of forces to build an avalanche protection from his forest. The proposal was accepted because the command was aware of the importance of the safe transport of Austrian troops to the battlefield through Vršić. An avalanche hazard was first of all a section of the road under the pass itself, therefore an avalanche shield was installed there - from Mochil through the top of the pass to Ticharyevoy house. A huge amount of wood was used to make such shields. There were not enough forestry specialists or carpenters nearby, so they were mobilized throughout Slovenia, and in nearby Tyrolean locations. They cut down the neighboring forest and made beams. In the town of Leger, workers continuously sawed wood, harvesting up to two wagons of logs a day. Other workers hammered support beams into the road and installed a roof over them to withstand an avalanche. A huge wooden bridge was built over the barracks, which would be able to protect them in the event of an avalanche, changing the direction of its movement away from the houses. It looked as if, in theory, these huge structures would have to be able to withstand the elements, protecting the road and the workers' dwelling. Until the winter of 1915, the construction of the avalanche protection was completed.

The first winter, lived in the mountains, made the builders of the road through Vršić convinced of the invisible nature of the mountains and the correctness of local residents and those experts who warned about possible dangers, knowing the harsh nature of the highlands in winter. Despite all the hardships of life in the mountains in winter, the builders were lucky at least in the fact that the real winter in 1915 was very late. The old people said that there had not been such a small amount of precipitation as that year for the last 35 years. There was no real snow either in January or in February. However, the locals, who were well acquainted with the whims of Vršić, knew that sooner or later it would snow.

Snowfall started in early March. Snow fell in large flakes - the blizzard did not stop for several days. The military command demanded from the prisoners of war that they constantly clear the road in order to ensure an uninterrupted flow of transport to the front. The wet March snow of 1916 hung like a terrible threat over the builders' hut. On Wednesday, the first week of Lent, March 8, 1916, at one o'clock in the afternoon, a huge snow avalanche suddenly fell from the southern slope of Moistrovka and Robichya - tons of wet, heavy snow with great force fell on the avalanche shields, which, unable to withstand the onslaught, collapsed, crushed under him all the inhabitants of the construction barracks - the workers of the northern camp. Among them were prisoners of war, their guards and other residents. The avalanche also completely swept away the powerful construction of the twenty-meter monument to Archduke Eugen, of which not a trace remained. The enormous size and strength of the avalanche can be judged by the fact that from the Ticharyevo house on the Trenta side (where, having stopped, the avalanche tilted the house by 15 °), it reached the Eryavchevo house on the Kranjskohora side, where it gathered main part... These two houses are located approximately one kilometer from each other, at different heights, with a difference of 100 meters above sea level. At this length, the avalanche covered everything that came in its way.

The scale of the catastrophe caused by the avalanche began to be realized only after the snow melted. The people who were buried under the snow were terribly disfigured: severed heads, arms, legs, crushed bodies because of the fallen beams. When the snow melted, the dead began to be transported to various cemeteries, most of all to Kranjska Gora, to the mass grave to the place where the Russian chapel was later erected, to the military cemetery in Trent, some were buried in separate graves right on the slopes.

Snow avalanche. The spring avalanche from the slopes of Moistrovka captured an area almost a kilometer long. An avalanche covered the northern camp. Although, on the advice of local residents, avalanche shields and barriers were erected over the camp, they were instantly crushed under the weight of sleet and buried the unfortunate camp residents.

The truth about the big avalanche

Since there were many inaccuracies in the publications related to the events around the avalanche, we will present some evidence and a commentary on them.

This misfortune is briefly mentioned by the teacher of history and geography from Kranjska Gora Ivica Rupnik. In 1931, in her book The History of Kranjska Gora and its Environs, probably by mistake, she writes that that year the winter was very snowy, the avalanche came down on Christmas, and the victims were buried in February.

Judging by the available chronological records (Blazhei, 1952; Uran, 1957), although compiled several decades after the avalanche, in the winter of 1915/16. until the end of February 1916 there was practically no real snow. These data have been verified and are correct.

In 1937, the memoirs of a resident of Kranjska Gora Gregor Zherjava were published, in which he stressed that there were several avalanches, the first time - in the first week of Great Lent, March 8, 1916, the second time, on Sunday March 12, and then a few more times. The tragedy with the prisoners of war happened after the first avalanche and partially, for the second time. According to his records, there were 210 victims of the avalanche, of which 40 were Austrians, and the rest were Russians. The author wrote down this data from the words of a military inspector who had lists of the dead. Three were rescued: the Austrian officer was protected by some boards, he was covered with a six-meter layer of snow, he dug for 36 hours, and he managed to escape and come to the surface. The second survivor was the baker, who was saved by the oven, and he had enough bread to wait for help. And the third was dug up alive, because the next day after the avalanche, in the place where it was covered with snow, the chief of the gendarmes walked by, hearing the groans. There they began to dig and took out a living person, sandwiched between two dead. In the spring, when the snow had completely melted, other victims were found and buried, mainly in Trent.

A priest from Rateč, historian and chronicler, Josip Lavtižar, in 1947, in his additions to the parish chronicle of Kranjska Gora, wrote that there was a lot of snow that winter and the weather was “southern”. Closer to spring, a large avalanche descended from Moistrovka, falling asleep 170 Russians and 40 Austrians. The dead were dug up only in the spring, after the snow melted, since some were buried under the snow at a depth of thirty meters.

Franz Uran, as an expert on the area around the Vršić Pass and the head of all work in one way or another related to the forest in this area, has been there many times, advising on construction work, therefore the information he provided, although published many years after the events, deserves great trust ... In addition, they coincide with the data reported in the memoirs of a local resident, Gregor Zherjava. After the accident, the situation remained avalanche-prone, so it was impossible to immediately provide assistance to the victims.

Franz Uranus says: “After lunch on March 8, 1916, I was going to go upstairs to see how the work was going. I left our house at one o'clock. There was a real blizzard. Approaching Hoodi Ravni, I heard a terrible cry, which sounded as if from hundreds of gulps, which suddenly died down here. I am walking slowly on, when suddenly I see Russian prisoners of war rushing towards me with their faces twisted with fear and shouting: "Avalanche, avalanche!" Several more Austrian guards rushed by. Everyone who ran from above was so terrified that it was impossible to get any clear explanation from them. Making them go back was also unrealistic. Everyone insisted that they were ready to die, but they would not go upstairs. The officers and engineers lost their heads and did not know what to do ...

On that day, it was absolutely impossible to persuade the Russian prisoners of war to organize some kind of rescue action, the Austrian officers also had neither the desire nor the courage to return to the scene of the disaster ...

The next morning, all officers and engineers came to our village from the southern barrack (the barrack was located on the southern side of Vršić in the “South Camp”). All were armed - all had revolvers, which they did not carry in normal situations. The officers demanded that all Russian prisoners of war come out. When the Russian prisoners gathered, a deputation of three people separated from their crowd, who told the then commander that they would no longer go to work on Vršić, since this business posed a threat to their lives, and that the Austrian military command had no right to use them for such works. Engineer Shutt again began to threaten them that if he continued to resist orders, he would be forced to resort to weapons. The deputation answered him that all the prisoners were ready to die, but they would no longer go to work in Vršić. They also refused to participate in the rescue action, saying that it did not make sense, since all living things were destroyed above. Only a few prisoners of war showed willingness to go upstairs if there was any hope of saving anyone. The Austrians, officers and engineers were even more afraid to go upstairs than the Russians. "

After the second avalanche descended, the fear of a repetition of the catastrophe increased. According to Stanko Hribar, the first Austrian military rescuers led by Franz Uran and residents of Kranjska Gora Micha Ojzl and Jože Koshyr went to Vršić on Thursday 16 March.

Due to martial law, the data on the victims were classified, therefore, the record of their number was made, most likely, according to rumors and assumptions. Researchers of this disaster claim that the number of victims was 200-300 people, while the inhabitants of Kranjska Gora believe that there were at least 600. The author of the monograph about Kranjska Gora "Village Borovshka" Vid Cerne believes that the most reliable information can be considered information taken from the local church chronicle, which mentions 272 victims. This data was given to the church housekeeper Gregor Zheryav, nicknamed Kravan, by the then parish priest Andrei Kraets, who participated in the burial of the victims. This information coincides with the sources in the Vienna military archive. The last refuge of many victims, according to Černe's records, was the so-called "soldier's cemetery" on Podlesya in Kranjska Gora, where the pylon of the cable car station "Podlee No. 2" was located.

Archival data on the disaster

Our contemporary, historian from Jesenice, magician. Marko Mugerli, an employee of the Upper Sava Museum, searched for data on the road to Vršić in the Vienna Military Archives. He found a telegram sent on March 8, 1916 to the headquarters of the 10th Army in the city of Belyak, a few hours after the avalanche, which had catastrophic consequences. The report says about a hundred Russian prisoners of war and three workers of the cargo cable car. The next day, the updated data were telegraphed. It was about three victims, one of whom was a security guard and two Russians. Five guards and 67 Russians were injured and injured. 12 guards and 71 Russians are missing. On March 12, early in the morning, the tragedy repeated itself. In Posochye, an earthquake was felt that lasted 30 seconds, which, in all likelihood, caused a new avalanche on the pass. After him, another 17 people were missing among the builders of the road.

Mage Mugerli also cited data from the diary of work on military construction, which was kept by Major Karl Riml. According to the data given there, the researcher came to the conclusion that on the eve of the fateful day there were two squads of prisoners at the top of the pass. A few days after the tragedy, one of the two departments was made. The division usually consisted of about 250 prisoners. It follows from this that the number of victims named by the then Kranskogorsk priest Gregor Zherjav is not exaggerated at all.

So, after so many years after the event, we can finally say with confidence that in March 1916, two avalanches descended from the mountains, claimed the lives of about 200 Russian prisoners of war.

Snow avalanches in the Slovenian mountains during the hostilities at the front in the Soča valley (1915-1917)

Franze Malešić, in his book "Memory and Warning of the Mountains", collected and interpreted data on accidents in the Slovenian mountains with exceptional systematicity; among them, in connection with our topic, special attention is attracted by reports of avalanches. The data collected confirms the fact that avalanches are part of life in the mountains in winter and that the tragedy that happened on Vršić was just one of many. So, Malešić cites the following cases of avalanches with a large number of victims:

On Christmas Eve 1915 over the Lepeny valley, 58 Austrian soldiers were killed,

On Christmas Day 1915, an artillery battery and horses were among the victims under Bogatinov saddle,

On Christmas Eve 1915 over Lake Krno -13 victims,

On Christmas Day 1915, 8 soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian army were on the mountain pasture of Duplje near Krn,

Date and exact location in the Julian Alps are not known - 140 Bosnian soldiers,

On March 8 and 12, 1916, at the Vršić pass, 272 Russian prisoners of war and Austrian soldiers guarding them,

December 16, 1916 - "Black Thursday" - front near the Lepena valley - about 100 dead. What happened at the same time terrible tragedy in Tyrol, where, according to chroniclers, there were about 10,000 or more victims, suggests that the nature of the mountains could become a more severe enemy of the soldier than enemy weapons;

1916 in Trent near Bovec (date not known) - 60 Russian prisoners of war,

The tragic experience of the winter of 1915/16 slightly reduced the number of deaths among the military due to avalanches that occurred next year, however, there were still several tragedies:

Until now, the records did not mention the avalanche that fell asleep in May 1917 in the southern camp on Vršić. The collection of the Triglav Museum in Moistran, a branch of the Upper Sava Museum from Jesenice, contains a letter from Dr. Karl Matka, a doctor from Radech at the Zidane Bridge. In May 1917, Matko, then a 19-year-old youth, was located near the southern camp on Vršić (Sudlager), where Russian prisoners of war were housed, and wrote:

On a beautiful sunny and rather warm day - May 12, 1917 - I was on the road about a kilometer below the camp. At about 11 o'clock from the direction of Moistrovka there was a strong noise, the roar of rolling stones, a rolling rumble, the crunch of breaking branches. When I reached the camp, I learned that a large number of workers - Russian prisoners of war and several Austrian guards - had been covered with an avalanche.

Rescue work began immediately, but due to the abundance of snow, stones, broken trees brought by an avalanche, things went slowly. Therefore, the victims of this avalanche were not excavated until June 8, 1917.

Then killed 30 Russian prisoners of war and six of them guarding Austrian soldiers.

It should be emphasized that the tragedy took place at a time when the Russian chapel was already built. The horror experienced by the Russian prisoners in the face of the still unknown danger, in a foreign country, with its mountains frightening with white death - snow avalanches - undoubtedly only constantly increased, taking on unimaginable scales for us - the fear of a person before an immediate threat to his life.

According to the available statistics of the victims of avalanches in the Slovenian mountains during the war, from 1915 to 1917. of these, about 1,500 people were affected. Individual avalanche descents, not listed here, took with them a certain number of lives, how many - probably, it will not be possible to know for sure, perhaps about 2000 people. So, in the small church of St. Spirit on Javorets, which is located above the valley of the Tolminki River, set up by the 3rd Austro-Hungarian Alpine Brigade in memory of the deceased comrades, mainly Czechs by nationality, an avalanche is most often cited among the causes of death. Until mid-1916, in the 10th Army of General Rohr, which defended the lines of the positions of the Austrian troops in the Krno Highlands, in the Bovec, Rombon region and further in the Western Julian and Carnic Alps, about 600 soldiers died in avalanches, which exceeded the number of those killed by battlefield in the same period of time!
Here it is worth saying a few more words about the Russian victims in the rear of the front, which took place on the Socha River. Their number is confirmed on the basis of a number of surviving documents. Due to avalanches, according to currently known data on the road to Vršić, about 200 people died in the northern camp during the March 1916 avalanche, then another 30 near the southern camp, in May 1917, and another person under the avalanche near Bovec 60. It was not yet possible to establish whether the incomplete data on the avalanche at Bovec included the avalanche at the southern camp on May 12, 1917. It can be assumed that in total about a hundred Russian prisoners of war died from accidents during the construction of the road to Vršić.

Wars end and life goes on ...

Despite the snowy tragedy of 1916, the Russian prisoners had to work further. Throughout 1916, until the beginning of October 1917, construction work was carried out, as well as work on maintaining order and cleaning the road, located in the difficult climatic conditions of the highlands. The road and the lift on the pass, demolished by an avalanche in March 1916, were moved closer to Prisoinik by the next winter. On the southern side of the road, in order to protect against avalanches, a tunnel was built, over the entrance to which the prisoners made an inscription - 1916.
From September 20, 1917 until the end of October 1917, the road to Vršić was the main supply artery for the 1st Corps of the 14th Army. The soldiers of this corps broke through the Italian defenses at Bovec. To the rear positions in the immediate vicinity of the front before the start of the 12th, the last big battle near the Sochi River, it was necessary to deliver 20,000 tons different material: food for people and animals, winter equipment, ammunition, and in addition, it was necessary to transport artillery pieces. Most of these goods were transported by trucks on the road through Vršić, as well as by cable car. After the breakthrough of the front line, endless lines of Italian prisoners of war walked along the same road.

Food for the soul and bow to the lost comrades

Despite the most terrible trials, people still retain the humanity inherent in them. The tragic death of comrades prompted the surviving compatriots to take care of perpetuating their memory. By the voluntary decision of the Russian prisoners, born out of sympathy for their neighbors and out of respect for tradition, an Orthodox chapel with Russians was built by the road, on the place where the hospital barrack stood (at today's 8th turn of the road to Vršić), in the wild beauty of the Julian Alps. bulbs of domes. It was a gesture of respect for the memory of the dead, and at the same time, it was the construction of a temple of hope in the hardest trials of life, in which true humanity is tested. Construction of the chapel in historical sources it was first mentioned only in 1931 by a teacher from Kranjska Gora Ivica Rupnik. In one of the most difficult trials that befell a person - in a war, the most important thing is that a person maintains inner calmness and composure, and for this it is necessary not to lose hope of surviving - physically, spiritually and mentally. Therefore, the priests in war time there was always enough work. For a soldier, whose life was constantly hanging by a thread, it was important not only to maintain faith in himself, in the possibility of his material continuation, but also not to lose his deep faith in eternal life. The participants in the battles on the Soča River, like those who were in the immediate rear and were associated with military operations, were mainly of the Catholic faith, so they were close to the Catholic churches of Slovenia. They found peace of mind and consolation in fellowship with Catholic priests. The prisoners of war - Orthodox Russians - gathered here in large numbers, probably wanted their own church to be located right on Vršić. How the construction of the chapel proceeded is still not known. We know that soldiers from Bosnia, Muslims, built a Muslim prayer house in Loge near Mangrt.

The cemetery can tell a lot about the fate of a particular region. There were a lot of soldiers' graves at the Kranjskohirsky churchyard. In the fall of 1915, it became necessary to choose a location for a military cemetery. At the foot of Mount Vitrants, on the so-called Podles, the military command took the land from the local peasant Yaklya-Shpan, and 300 square meters this site was made a "soldier's cemetery". Until 1937, when all the remains from this cemetery were finally reburied, local residents on All Saints Day (the day of remembrance of the dead) respectfully commemorated their neighbors here. In the middle of the cemetery area there was a large wooden cross, and above the entrance there was an inscription: Resurrecturis - resurrection from the dead. There were 164 graves in the cemetery, each with the name of the deceased, the date of death and nationality, as well as who the deceased was: an artilleryman, an infantryman, or a Russian prisoner of war. The first Russian who was buried here was Ivan Pirmanov, who died on September 9, 1916. A total of 68 Russian soldiers were buried there.

When the chapel was built, a sad monument to the senselessness of war, all Russian prisoners of war, Austrian soldiers and civilian builders of the road to Vršić gathered around it. So, on the eve of the feast of All Saints, the chapel began to serve its purpose. There is only one photograph, taken immediately after the completion of construction or a year later, reminiscent of this event - living evidence of respect for dead soldiers who did not have a chance to go to their native land. The photo shows representatives of different nationalities, people who found themselves in that war on different sides of the front, but the fact that they were photographed together speaks of their solidarity and mutual assistance in those conditions. It is difficult to force someone to take pictures together: this old photo exudes a sincere feeling, taking humanity to the soul. In the center we see an elderly man, probably an Austro-Hungarian officer, with a white dog in his arms; it is unlikely that he would have taken her with him if he had not at least a little sympathized with the state of mind of the enemy soldiers who found themselves in a foreign land and in captivity. Could it be that the prevailing opinion that the guards always, in all situations, mistreated prisoners, is somewhat exaggerated?

In 1937, the remains of Russian prisoners of war from the "soldier's cemetery" in Kranjska Gora were reburied in a mass grave near the Russian chapel, and then the builder Josip Slavets put a stone obelisk with the inscription in Russian "Sons of Russia" at the grave. Remains found during the reconstruction of the road to Vršić were also buried there. Orthodox believers and Russian emigrants living in Slovenia began to come to the chapel. Church ceremonies were also carried out near the chapel, which were usually timed to coincide with the day of St. Vladimir, on the last Sunday of July. In the mountains, in the paradise beauty under Triglav, then it is pleasant and warm. At this time in Kranjska Gora it is usually stuffy and hot, but here, in the shade, it always breathes freshness. Over the past decades, the forest glade on which the chapel was built has grown overgrown. Tall trees surrounding the chapel with numerous steps rising to its entrance surrounded it with peace and forest coolness. Our Slavic brothers, who came from both sides of the Urals, found eternal peace here.

Solemn meeting in front of the Russian chapel in 1916 or 1917: in the foreground sits an officer of the Austro-Hungarian army, holding a small white dog in his arms, around the soldiers and many Russian prisoners of war. The general photo of the audience is a testament to their tolerance and patience with which they were ready to wait until the end of the terrible ordeal of the war that had befallen them in life.

How many Russian victims

So how many victims were there among the Russian prisoners of war who built the road to Vršić, designed to ensure uninterrupted supply of everything necessary to the front and rear on the Soča River? The figures in various sources are reported to be different, there is even a report of 10,000 dead, however, here you are dealing with a significant error - this was the approximate number of all Russian prisoners of war who were there. This error has been traced back to the writings of the writer Uros Zupancic for many years. On the basis of the surviving burials, it is impossible to judge the number of Russian victims. On wider sections along the road to Vršić (for example, at the 8th and 25th bends of the serpentine road), numerous hospitals and infirmaries were organized, several field hospitals were also in Kranjska Gora itself, and, of course, patients died in masses ... During the war, with the lack of food, as well as the modest possibilities of the then medicine, patients often could not be helped with anything. Brothers and comrades in misfortune buried the dead right by the road, placing an Orthodox wooden cross on the grave mound. Time destroyed the tree of crosses, the grave hills were smoothed out and overgrown with grass, and the remains of the unfortunate still lie in our land, the paths along which mountain lovers walk are literally paved with their bones.

The construction of the road and its arrangement took approximately two and a half years. The winter months were, of course, the most difficult for all those involved in the construction. In the barracks among the mountains, with scarce food and poor heating, frost penetrated the emaciated bodies to the bone. Slavic youths, who in 1914 - 1915. in the west of the Russian Empire, mothers with a bitter embrace were escorted to the front in Galicia, Silesia, Bessarabia, Poland, Belarus and Ukraine, fully tasted the hardships of war - the greatest misfortune for a person. With the same motherly farewell kiss on their brows, other Slavic husbands and sons rode along the road through Vršić to the front. During the long 29 months of hostilities and twelve offensives of the front on the Socha River, ten thousand people found their last refuge on the battlefields. The family tradition and old yellowed photographs in many Slovenian families still cherish the tragic memories of these battles. My paternal grandfather, Rudolf Zupanich (1898-1964), was also sent there, but he was lucky, he survived ...

The number of victims of Russian prisoners during the construction of the road through Vršić is estimated by military experts at one hundred people, this is, in addition to (approximately) three hundred who died under avalanches in March 1916 and May 1917. This analysis somewhat dispels the dramatized tradition of naming the road to Vršić as “the road of death”.

At the end of the war, despite repatriation (in August 1918), many Russian prisoners of war, because of the socialist revolution that took place in Russia, chose to stay in Slovenia. Sadly, they sang their own Russian songs, full of suffering and feelings, settled mainly in the villages to engage in peasant labor, or earned their bread by small handicrafts. Meanwhile, in Slovenia and in the post-war state of Yugoslavia, after the establishment of a new post-war demarcation between Yugoslavia, Austria and Italy, new Russian emigrants began to come to permanent residence in October 1921. Many of them found service at the Rapala border or as financial workers. Most of them were soldiers and officers of the army of General Wrangel, who fought against the Bolsheviks.

The road through Vršić after the war

In 1936, the builder Josip Slavets (1901-1978) was engaged in the construction of a new section of the road from the 8th turn of the road, where the Russian Chapel stands, to the House in the Forest. The old part of the road has completely fallen into disrepair.

It was then that Josip Slavets, admiring the beauty of the mighty Shkrlatitsa, decided to build a house for himself a five-minute walk from the chapel, under the Prisanka massif, above the 9th turn of the road, still called Slavchev by local mountain lovers. As the closest neighbors of the chapel, the descendants of Slavec have considered it their moral duty to take care of the last refuge of the dead Slavic brothers for 70 years. In the spirit of this understanding of his duty, the son of the builder Josip Slavec, Sasha Slavec (born 1929), in 1992 initiated the revival of Slovenian-Russian relations, which 15 years later, in 2006, with the restoration of the Russian Chapel, experienced the culmination of their development ... The tradition of the moral protector of the nearby chapel in the Slavtsev family is continued by Josip's grandson, Alyosh, who will continue to preserve the tradition, taking care of the renovated monument for future generations.

Let's return to where we began our reflections: for the sake of warning and in memory of the war, which a hundred years ago strongly influenced the course of world history, stands on the Kranjskohora side of the road through Vršić under the Russian Chapel (at an altitude of about 1000 m above sea level) on a stone wall, towering by the road - a large, so-called, Russian cross. Between 1915 and 1916 it was put by an Austrian officer. A bronze plaque with the lines of the Austrian poet Peter Rosseger engraved on it is nailed under it:

To the north
or will you go south -
everything to the goal
you will get there.
Go to battle Ile in
live the world - God's
Will Decide That.

Russian chapel.

More on the subject of prisoners of war in WWI and

Surrender to mercy
World War I prisoners - gentlemen, bestiality and humanitarian disaster

During the First World War, a total of about 8 million soldiers and officers were captured by the enemy - slightly less than the number of those killed on the battlefields. And it was the maintenance of prisoners of war that became, perhaps, the first unexpected problem faced by the countries that entered the war. Already from the first weeks of hostilities, the account of those taken prisoner on both sides went to tens and hundreds of thousands, and the question arose - where to keep them, what to feed and what to occupy.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Russian prisoners of war in East Prussia. 1914 year

Of course, they took prisoners before. For example, as a result of the defeat of France in 1871, Prussia surrendered 120 thousand soldiers. However, in the past, such cases marked the end of wars, and the victors usually let the prisoners go home. This same war, as it almost immediately became clear, would not end quickly, and the prisoners kept arriving and arriving.

Solved the problem of prisoners in different countries in different ways, but in general, comparing with the experience of the future World War II, it is quite humane. Of course, the life of the prisoners was by no means "sugar", it was not complete without cruelty and atrocities, but these were rather exceptions to the rule. Moreover, almost everywhere the fact of being taken prisoner was by no means equated with betrayal - it was taken for granted that soldiers left without ammunition surrounded by the enemy had the right to surrender at his mercy, instead of dying in vain. At least in order to then try to return and benefit the homeland. At the same time, it must be admitted that the most irreconcilable position in relation to their prisoners was taken precisely by the Russian leadership, which on principle refused to provide them with assistance. So Stalin, who later equated all captured compatriots with state criminals, by and large, was not a pioneer.

Every seventh

For the entire time of the First World War, about 13% of soldiers and officers were captured on both sides - about every seventh to eighth. Most of all were Russians (2.4 million), in second place in terms of the number of prisoners was Austria-Hungary (2.2 million), in third - Germany (about 1 million), then Italy (600 thousand), France (more 500 thousand), Turkey (250 thousand), Great Britain (170 thousand), Serbia (150 thousand). A total of more than 4 million people were held captive by the Central Powers, and 3.5 million by the Entente countries.

The first large groups of prisoners, numbering in the hundreds of thousands, appeared already in the first months of the war. Soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian army (especially those mobilized from among the Slavic peoples - Czechs, Slovaks and Serbs) in tens of thousands laid down their arms in front of the Russians in Galicia. The Germans, in turn, captured tens of thousands of Russian soldiers during the defeat of General Samsonov's army in August 1914 in East Prussia and no less than the French - during the capture of the fortress of Maubeuge, which in the very first days of the war ended up in a German "cauldron" in northern France. But even highly developed Germany turned out to be absolutely unprepared for such a turn.

In the first weeks of the war, there were still cases of "gentlemanly" attitude towards the captured enemy. So, on August 13, 1914, the 26th Mogilev Infantry Regiment, during an offensive in Galicia, freed a number of Russian soldiers previously captured by the Austrians, and they said that the Austrians even gave them warm blankets from the hospital. But very soon, when it became clear that not only blankets were missing, but also many other things necessary in everyday life, moreover, for their soldiers, the attitude towards the prisoners changed.

In more or less tolerable conditions in Germany, as a rule, only captured officers were kept in fortresses (the most famous - Ingolstadt, Königstein). The soldiers were placed at best, and then at first, in empty barracks, and more often in dugouts, which they dug for themselves in the fields and forests. Only by the middle of the war in Germany were some kind of barracks built.

For the captured Russian soldiers, it was the initial period of the war that turned out to be the most difficult. On the one hand, the Germans and Austrians were not yet so embittered by the horrors of the war, Germany was not yet seized by a food crisis. But on the other hand, the logistics of supply and medical services for hundreds of thousands of additional "mouths" have not yet been built, even for the most meager rations. As a result, a humanitarian catastrophe broke out very soon.

In the winter of 1914-1915. among the prisoners in Germany, a terrible epidemic of typhus swept, the methods of combating which the German doctors imagined very vaguely. In Germany, for a long time, they almost did not suffer from this disease, and local doctors even simply did not have enough experience. Sometimes their nerves could not stand - the prisoners died "like flies", hundreds a day, and some doctors simply ran away from this horror. Even worse was the fate of the Russian soldiers who found themselves in Turkish captivity (fortunately, there were not many of them, since the Russian army operated for the most part successfully on the Caucasian front) - nothing is known about the overwhelming majority.

Captivity - shameful and honorable

Aggravated the moral and physical position of Russian prisoners and the attitude of their commanders towards them. In fact, it was not Stalin who came up with the thesis that "all prisoners are traitors", approximately the same attitude towards them dominated in the General Staff and in the First World War. Of course, it was not so radical: if a soldier was taken prisoner, being wounded, unconscious, or even simply in a hopeless position (having spent all the ammunition), and then also managed to escape from captivity, this was treated with understanding. But at the same time, already at the beginning of the war, the Russian leadership made a fundamental decision - not to send food for prisoners to Germany, as Western European governments began to practice. Formally, he was explained by fears that food for Russian prisoners would be taken and eaten. German soldiers, and it turns out that we will help the enemy.

Russian prisoners of war in dugouts in Stettin

Although, according to only official data, more than half of Russian soldiers and officers were captured, being in desperate situations- either being wounded or shell-shocked, or as part of platoons, companies and whole regiments, being completely surrounded and without ammunition and seeing how the Germans from a safe distance shoot them with artillery. They said: "We were not brought to the battle, but to the slaughter." In such cases of mass surrender, by the way, the white flag was often thrown out on direct orders from officers who understood their responsibility for the lives of their subordinates.

The command, as a rule, had no complaints about such prisoners, and if someone escaped from captivity and returned to duty, he could be considered a real hero. Among such fugitives, some of whom managed to get to their homeland only from the fourth or fifth attempt, having passed cruel tests, there were quite a few famous figures, including, for example, General Lavr Kornilov and who later became Marshal Soviet Union Mikhail Tukhachevsky. In one of the German fortresses, along with Tukhachevsky, by the way, the future President of France Charles de Gaulle was also in captivity, with whom he personally met. De Gaulle tried to run six times, but failed each time. And then it never occurred to anyone to reproach him for being in German captivity.

In Russia, in April 1915, a decree was adopted, ordering the deprivation of food allowances for the mobilized breadwinner of the family of the then "enemies of the people" - "voluntarily surrendered to the enemy and deserters." The military command sent out lists of "traitors" to the governors, and on the ground they were publicized and betrayed to public disgrace.

Due to the traditional Russian confusion, the number of such persons often included the "missing", among whom there were many who died "for the faith, the tsar and the fatherland." A little later, an order was issued, ordering to shoot on the spot everyone who ran to the enemy with their hands up, and this was to be done by colleagues. Of course, this order was carried out reluctantly, and in November 1915, the first similarities of the notorious detachments began to appear in the Russian army. But cases of surrender - sometimes in whole regiments, continued, even despite the stories of the atrocities of the Germans against prisoners, actively disseminated by propaganda.

"Carried in wagons intended for the transport of livestock"

Atrocities in the First world war were not as massive as in the Second on the part of the fascists, but they also took place. The Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry, for example, in June 1915 published a report based on the testimony of Russian soldiers who managed to escape from German or Austrian captivity. In particular, it provided the following data:

“From the captured, usually German soldiers and even officers took away greatcoats, boots and everything of value, right up to the underwear crosses ... During the campaign, which sometimes lasted several days, the prisoners were not given any food, and they were forced to eat raw potatoes, rutabagas and carrots, pulling vegetables from the fields, which they passed, being subjected to blows from the guards. The senior non-commissioned officer of the Siberian regiment Rafail Kochurovsky witnessed how a German soldier killed a prisoner with a rifle shot on the spot because the latter, having failed, rushed to pick up a rotten rutabaga that was lying on the road ...

The prisoners were transported in wagons intended for the transport of cattle, dirty, smelly, the floor of which was covered with a thick layer of manure. From 80 to 90 prisoners were placed in such a car. The overcrowding caused such tightness that there was no way to sit or lie down. The prisoners were forced to stand all the way, supporting each other. Before the train departed, the carriage was tightly locked, and natural necessity was sent right there in the carriage, using caps for this, which were then thrown out through a small window, which at the same time served as the only ventilation. The air in the carriage, according to the unanimous testimony of all the prisoners who returned to their homeland, was terrible. People were suffocating, fainted, many died.

Cleaning the cesspools and latrines in the camp was the sole responsibility of the Russians. The prisoners, in parties of several hundred people, were forced to dig ditches to drain swamps, cut down timber, carry logs, dig trenches, etc.

When performing field work, the prisoners, with the help of special devices, were harnessed to plows and harrows, and they plowed and leveled the fields all day, replacing the working cattle. Private of the Ivangorod regiment, Pyotr Lopukhov, with tears in his eyes, told how he and other prisoners were harnessed to the plow, and the German walking behind the plow was urging on with a long belt whip ...

A tired prisoner who had sat down to rest, the German guard again raised him to work with blows of a stick, butt and often a bayonet. Those who did not want to do this or that work were beaten until they lost consciousness, and sometimes even to death ... Private of the 23rd Infantry Regiment Anton Snotalsky witnessed how in the Schneidemülle camp a German soldier killed a prisoner on the spot with a shot from a gun, who from weakness could not go to work ...

Not to mention rubber sticks, whips from veins and whips, which were supplied in abundance with the German sergeant-major, non-commissioned officers and soldiers watching the prisoners, a number of cruel punishments were applied in the camps, imposed for the most insignificant offenses, and sometimes without any reason. Prisoners were deprived of hot food for very long periods; forced to stand for several hours in a row with hands raised up, in each of which they put 4-5 bricks; they put their bare knees on broken brick, forced them aimlessly, to the point of complete exhaustion, to drag weights around the barracks, etc., but the favorite and most often used were punishments reminiscent of medieval torture.

The offender was tied [by hands tied behind his back] to a pillar driven into the ground so high that his feet barely touched the ground. The suspended person was left in this position for two, three, and even four hours; After 20-25 minutes the blood rushed to the head, profuse bleeding from the nose, mouth and ears began, the unfortunate man gradually weakened, lost consciousness ... "

Torture of a Russian prisoner of war in an Austrian camp

In addition to publishing such reports, the Russian authorities used the methods of "popular agitation". The Chairman of the State Duma Rodzianko proposed using the escapees from enemy captivity to tell stories about the horrors in trams and trains, and since there were not enough escapees, professional beggars - crippled invalids were released into the streets of St. Petersburg with stories and songs to an accordion about the troubles in German dungeons.

Morbidity and mortality among Russian prisoners was indeed twice as high as among British, French and Belgian prisoners. Those survived the hungry winter of 1914-15. mainly from home parcels sent through the Red Cross, while the Russians received only crumbs from charitable organizations. But if the same figures are compared with the Serbs, who did not receive anything at all from the benefactors, then their mortality rate was even higher, as well as among the Italians and Romanians who later entered the war. But still, despite all the suffering, out of the total number of Russian prisoners of war, only 6% died - even taking into account the raging epidemics, and among them there were only 294 officers.

The most dangerous moment for the captured was precisely the moment of capture. The German commander of the 33rd ersatz battalion wrote to his wife on August 21, 1914: “My people were so embittered that they did not give mercy, because the Russians often pretend to surrender, raise their hands up, and if you approach them, they again raise their guns and they shoot, and as a result - big losses. "

At the same time, as follows from the memoirs of Russian soldiers, more often than not, there was no deceit in such situations. In the face of loss of control, one officer, deciding that further resistance was useless, could shout “We surrender!” And the soldiers raised their hands. And after a few seconds, one of the other officers - simply uncompromising or having their own plan of further actions - ordered to fight further, and the same soldiers who were already ready to surrender, following the order, began to shoot again.

Highly qualified prisoners

But the fate of the German and Austrian soldiers who were captured by the Russian Federation was even worse. Among them, at least a quarter of them eventually died of hunger and typhoid epidemics. In Russian prison camps, a humanitarian catastrophe, even more terrible than in Germany, broke out at the end of the war, after the 1917 revolution. In the conditions of almost complete anarchy and anarchy, no one really cares about the prisoners at all, and they ceased to be fed and provided any care. A significant part of the survivors, by the way, were Czechs and Slovaks, of whom the Czechoslovak corps was formed by 1917, which was supposed to fight on the side of the Entente. This episode entered Soviet historiography as the “White Czech uprising”.

And before the revolution, the prisoners of the German and Austro-Hungarian armies, among whom there were many skilled workers, were treated in Russia not only with tolerance, but sometimes with interest, trying to use their skills in production. So, in the mines and factories of Donbass during the First World War, more than 40 thousand prisoners worked and they were even paid a tolerable salary - up to 1 ruble 25 kopecks a day, in addition to providing clothes, shoes and linen.

Prisoners awaiting transfer in the rear

Professor of Moscow University, historian Sergei Melgunov noted in the summer of 1916 that “the prisoners, especially the Hungarians and the Germans, are treated too condescendingly; migrated to Russia in the XVII-XVIII centuries and mostly German blood in the ruling dynasty - RP) ". Special instructions even ordered prisoners of war used in industrial plants to be fed meat. Most of all cheers-patriots complained about this instruction, because “even the peasants do not eat meat every day”. Supreme Commander, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich, also believed that there was no need to deal with the prisoners: "The slightest manifestation of insolence or challenge should be punished immediately by transferring them to the position of prisoners, and in further cases of such behavior, the prisoners should be handcuffed, etc."

Prisoners of war working in production in Russia had relative freedom and, although they lived in barracks at the factory, they could get out of the territory of an impromptu "camp". Something similar towards the end of the war, as noted by the historian Maxim Oskin, was also observed in Austria-Hungary - prisoners at night went straight through the camp gates to neighboring villages, and the sentries turned away indifferently. And in Germany in the camps of Russian prisoners, in addition to official management, by the end of the war, self-government bodies, camp committees were already formed, which contacted the commandant's offices and resolved humanitarian issues - from the distribution of charitable assistance to the organization of correspondence with relatives and camp leisure (in model camps, usually there were theater clubs, courses German language etc.).

Russians cannot be exchanged

By the spring of 1915, Germany had already developed provisions on the standards of detention: how much prisoners should receive food, medical care, etc. From that time on, they began to be actively involved in work - from digging trenches to the production of shells, although the Hague Convention forbade to force them to work for the enemy. However, absolutely all countries began to attract prisoners of war to work in difficult wartime conditions and a shortage of workers.

In their factories, the Germans rarely used Russian prisoners, since they believed that absolutely all Russians were an illiterate redneck, unable to master complex production. Therefore, they were most often sent to work in the fields. But every cloud has a silver lining - it was an additional chance to survive, as in agriculture, understandable reasons it was easier with food, and the Germans soon began to miss them for themselves.

By the beginning of the First World War, two Hague Conventions on the Laws and Customs of War, 1899 and 1907, had already been signed, which included provisions on prisoners of war. But each country interpreted the provisions of the conventions in its own way, and the only thing that really somehow worked in practice was the admission of representatives of the International Committee and national organizations of the Red Cross to the prisoner of war camps.

This system acted just "somehow", because the Red Cross could not carry out inspections in all camps. In each country, depending on the preferences and imaginations of the local authorities, there were various types of camps - basic, penalty, quarantine, so-called "work teams", camps in the front line, etc. The list of camps visited by the observers was compiled by the host sides themselves - usually they were only "model" main camps in the deep rear. However, during the war, 41 Red Cross delegates managed to visit 524 camps throughout Europe. By the end of the war, more than 20 million letters and messages, 1.9 million transmissions and donations worth CHF 18 million had been sent through the Red Cross.

Empress Alexandra Feodorovna (left) with her daughter Tatyana and Tsarevich Alexei (right)
collect donations to the Red Cross. 1914 year

Also, diplomats from neutral countries - Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Spain - mediated in resolving issues of control over the situation of prisoners of war. Specifically, it was the Spaniards who were "responsible" for the Russian prisoners of war in Germany.

With the mediation of neutral countries, additional agreements were signed to alleviate the plight of individual prisoners of war. For example, it was possible to ensure that patients with tuberculosis and disabled people could travel to neutral country where they ended up in the position of internees and lived in more comfortable conditions. Also, periodically, mutual exchanges of prisoners of war, obviously no longer capable of holding weapons, were carried out. It is curious that the initiators of such humanism were usually the Germans and Austro-Hungarians. Moreover, at the end of the war, the exchange of healthy prisoners began - old and large soldiers. In total, thanks to such actions, about 200 thousand prisoners were able to return to their homeland. Most of them were soldiers who fought on the Western Front, while on the Eastern, such agreements remained isolated to the very end due to the hostile attitude of the Russian command in their prisoners. Moreover, even the line of individual exchange was completely closed for them.

For example, captured Russian generals and their families during the war wrote en masse petitions to the highest name with a request to exchange them, but the tsarist government remained firm, considering them all traitors, or believing that they should flee themselves. Although most of these generals, according to the documents, were taken prisoner, finding themselves in desperate situations through no fault of their own - as a result of complete encirclement, as was the case in the defeat of Samsonov's army at Tannenberg in East Prussia in August 1914, (15 generals), in a battle on the border of East Prussia in the forest near Augustow in February 1915 (11 generals) or in the encircled fortress of Novogeorgievsk near Warsaw (17 generals).

Among the series of tragedies of the Great Patriotic War, along with millions of dead, one of the most serious is captivity. Captivity to some extent is even more terrible for perception than death in battles, for one can understand when millions died with weapons in their hands, defending their native land from invaders. But it is difficult to imagine that millions are captured by the enemy.

In total, during the war years, 4,559.0 thousand were listed as missing, almost 40% of the total number of irrecoverable losses. Most of them ended up in captivity, from which only 1,836 thousand people returned (1)

When the count goes to the millions, it always causes shock and a dumb question: how can this be ?! Some kind of catch is immediately implied, well, 4.5 million soldiers and officers could not just be taken prisoner for objective reasons, without exhausting all the possibilities for resistance!

This is what the liberals and pseudo-historians use in the most insolent way, laying out a ready-made answer: and this, they say, did not want to fight for the Bolsheviks. So all of them surrendered to the Germans, until the bloody "commies" with barriers began to force the army to go into battle.

Tellingly, this point of view is shared by both the monarchists and the Nazis, and, of course, the Liberal Democrats. This is one of the key points of their unity in the struggle against a common enemy - the Soviet state (even the deceased) and directly with our history.

Their bread is to provide simple answers to difficult questions. To take one negative feature and inflate it to universal proportions, because if you do not delve into the events of those terrible days in detail, then such an answer, in principle, even seems logical. After all, if you wanted to fight for your country, you would have fought, not surrendered, right? ..

How the thin line of the covering armies had to stop the armada of the Germans and their allies, the croaker, as a rule, are silent about how. How the infantry "on foot" should have avoided the encirclement of the motorized units of the Germans, all the more does not follow.

The purpose of this article is not to analyze how stubbornly the Soviet troops defended (German documents are full of reports on the stubborn, sometimes desperate resistance of the encircled), we will touch on this topic only in passing, when there is a special need for that.

Along the way, may common sense forgive me, I will try to apply the logic of the liberals to the events of those times and compare them with the events of the Great Patriotic War. Let me make a reservation right away: the author fundamentally does not accept such a "liberal" approach to history, and aims to show all its absurdity, along the way bringing to the reader a lot of useful information about the battles of past wars.

Your attention is invited to part 1 - "Two boilers", which is based on reflections on the similarities and differences between the encirclement of the Soviet 3rd and 10th armies in the Bialystok cauldron and the death of the 2nd Russian army at Tannenberg.

So, in 1914, the Russian army after the mobilization was 6 million 553 thousand people. (2)

It is worth comparing this number with 4.8 million people who were in the Red Army on June 22, 1941, of which there were only 2.9 million people in the western districts, torn into three operatively unconnected echelons.

Active phase first world war after a series of preparations, it began for the Russian army with the systematic deployment and invasion of East Prussia by the 1st and 2nd armies on August 17, 1914, that is, almost three weeks after the announcement of mobilization. Despite the poor preparation of the offensive and the inconclusive deployment of forces, there was still plenty of time, especially in comparison with the time that the Red Army had to prepare for war. Let me remind you that the first measures for the deployment of the army began to be taken only after the TASS report, namely on June 18-19, 1941.

With a total of 304 battalions against 183 for the Germans and 183 (!) Squadrons against 84, possessing an overwhelming qualitative superiority of personnel divisions over the German reserve corps, mixed with the units of the Landwehr and Landsturm, the armies of the North-Western Front launched an offensive. Having successfully started the operation with the Battle of Gumbinnen, in which the Germans suffered a painful defeat, the 1st and 2nd armies began, to the delight of the Germans, who were already thinking about retreating, slowly and completely uncoordinatedly, fanning out in different directions. The German command seemed to have just re-believed in their strength. Radio intercepts of unencrypted orders for the armies of Rennenkampf and Samsonov completely outlined the disposition of the Russian armies: a gap of many kilometers that was not filled by anyone was formed between them. Possessing an overwhelming superiority in cavalry, our generals could not really use it even to cover the flanks, not to mention the effective pursuit of the retreating Germans and coverage of the "fog of war" in front of the troops advancing blindly towards death. Taking advantage of the sluggishness of the offensive on the part of the 1st Army, the German units (including partially even the Königsberg garrison) broke away from the pursuit, plunged into echelons and, carrying out a railway maneuver, went straight to the flank of Samsonov's 2nd Army. There, joining up with the arriving reserves and the main forces of the 8th Army, they began an encirclement operation. On August 27-30, the corps of the 2nd Russian army found themselves in a ring, being cut off from the corps of the 1st army by 80-100 km. Torn off purely voluntarily and out of their own stupidity, and not under the influence of blows imposing their will on the Germans.

Agree, what a striking contrast with the circumstances of the encirclement of units of the 3rd and 10th Soviet armies in the Bialystok salient! When two tank groups, much more powerful than their opponents, broke through the front and quickly reached the rear communications of the region, which was already poor in communication routes, trapping Soviet troops in a wooded and swampy area, continuously ironing out the retreating columns with bombs, burning tractors, forcing them to throw artillery and go for a breakthrough with rifles against machine guns.

In our case, the superiority in forces is entirely on the side of the armies of Samsonov and Rennenkampf, but the Germans manage to turn the initial defeat into a brilliant victory.

How did those surrounded behave?

Individual units of the 2nd Army put up heroic resistance, like 25 years later the troops in the Bialystok cauldron. General M. Zayonchkovsky writes (2),

In this battle, the Russians defeated the 6th and 70th Landwehr Brigades at Gross-Bessau and Mühlen, Goltz's Landwehr Division, and the 3rd Res. division at Hohenstein, 41st Infantry Division at Waplitz, 37th Infantry. division for Lana, Orlau, Frankenau; finally, they defeated the 2nd Infantry. divisions at Uzdau, but the individual Russian successes were not tied to the overall victory.

But what are the individual successes against the background of a general catastrophe?

Parts of XIII and XV corps and 2 infantry. the divisions broke up into separate groups, made up of different military units of infantry, artillery and Cossacks (divisional cavalry), and continued to fight on August 30 and 31. Few managed to break through, but for the most part these groups, left without the leadership of senior commanders, made their way at random along forest roads and, when they met the enemy, were unable to organize a successful breakthrough.

The phrase “we were unable to organize a successful breakthrough” hides some very hard-hitting things.

For example, General A.A. Blagoveshchensky, the commander of the VI Army Corps, one of the direct culprits of the encirclement of the 2nd Army, fled from his troops. The corps followed the commander uncontrollably back abroad, opening the flank of their comrades for the Germans. As he later justified himself, "I'm not used to being with the troops." (A. Kersnovsky, "History of the Russian Army")

The commander of the 23rd Army Corps, General K.A. Kondratovich also fled from his troops to the rear.

But the main "hero" in this whole tragedy is undoubtedly General N.A. Klyuev, commander of the XIII Corps.

During the fighting in the encirclement, he, heading the divisional column, marching to the breakthrough, in front of the last line of German machine guns, suddenly ordered the orderly to go to the Germans with a white scarf in his hands. And more than 20 thousand people with arms surrendered without a fight, not wounded, having every opportunity not only to continue resistance, but also to safely break through to their own.

A characteristic feature is that of all the higher ranks of the corps, only the chief of staff of the 36th Infantry Division, Colonel Vyakhirev, made it. Of the entire composition, 165 people and a team of scouts made their way. It was they who did not obey the surrender order and went for a breakthrough. As we can see, successful. (Ibid.)

Also noteworthy are the circumstances of the suicide of General Samsonov - when, while trying to break through with his headquarters, he was not supported by an escort who did not want to go to machine guns, and was forced to shoot himself in order to avoid shame.

It is worth noting that the topic of command in the tsarist army deserves detailed consideration in a separate article.

Again, a striking contrast to the frenzy with which the Soviet 10th and 3rd armies fought their way through the swamps to their own, sweeping away one after the other German barriers, inflicting sensitive losses on the enemy, stubbornly defending and holding back the pursuers at every possible line, teeth gripping the bridgeheads at key crossings in June 1941. (five)

The enemy was able to complete the encirclement only on July 2, 1941, after wandering through the woods in order and decently disheveled their divisions. According to German data, 116,100 prisoners were taken prisoner (here it would be worthwhile to make a reservation about the methods of counting prisoners by the Germans, but this is a topic for a separate material), but the success was only partial - a significant part Soviet troops escaped from the cauldron, despite the loss of heavy artillery and most of the equipment.

Samsonov's army, I recall, did not encounter breakthroughs by tank groups and bomb carpets, which had equality in manpower with the enemy (10.5 infantry divisions against 11.5 for the enemy) and superior to them in quality, lost 92 thousand prisoners in those battles in 3 days , with combat losses of only 8 thousand people killed. (3) Other estimates give figures from 80 to 97 thousand prisoners. Regarding the losses killed in the 3rd and 10th armies in 1941, the German report of the Army Group Center unequivocally stated: "The enemy's casualties, according to unanimous estimates, are extremely high." Feel the difference, as they say.

After the encirclement of the 2nd Army, the German blow logically fell on the 1st Army, which had previously shamefully left its comrades in trouble, and by September 17th Rennenkampf's army added another 45 thousand captured to the German "piggy bank".

It's time to ask the question - why, in fact, the captured soldiers and officers Soviet army Are our precious liberals registered as “unwilling to fight” and “surrendered at the first opportunity”?

Forgive me, but if 116 thousand prisoners, who fought a much stronger enemy for a week and a half, "did not want to fight for the power of the Bolsheviks," then 97 thousand prisoners in East Prussia, who fought with an enemy at least equal, and even weaker, all the more should were not willing to fight "for Faith, Tsar and Fatherland"? Otherwise, how did the Germans reap such a significant "harvest"?

Sorry, but the logic is lame. If we operate only with the number of prisoners, then the argumentation of this level instantly becomes a double-edged sword, and no less painfully strikes the tsarist army, during the period of its greatest power. When no Bolsheviks were even close, the country lived in anticipation of victory, on a wave of patriotism, a catastrophe had not yet broken out, and "shell hunger", a well-trained cadre army on pre-war reserves went to smash the enemy with little blood on its territory.

Agree, accusing the divisions of Samsonov's army of pacifism is at least silly, which no one actually does. But for some reason, in relation to the prisoners in the same Bialystok cauldron, such statements are pouring from a cornucopia.

But our rulers of thought and committed "historians" have long been used to the policy of double standards. So let's think with our own head.

But all this was only the beginning, much more terrible events would unfold in 1915, which we will talk about.

*Note.

1) G.M. Krivosheev, "Russia and the USSR in the wars of the 20th century, a statistical study"

2) M. Zayonchkovsky, "The First World War"

3) N. Golovin, "Military efforts of Russia in the First World War"

4) A.A. Kersnovsky, "History of the Russian Army"

For more details on the death of the 2nd Army in East Prussia, see, for example, G. Isserson, "Cannes of the World War."

5) For the battles of the 3rd and 10th armies, see A. Isaev, “Unknown 1941. Stopped Blitzkrieg ".