Archival Documents on the European Prisoners of World War I in the Semirechye Oblast of the Turkestan General Governorship: A Case Study

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УДК 94(574)

DOI 10.28995/2073-0101-2018-4-996-1008

Gulnara M. Mendikulova

Satbayev University, Almaty, Republic of Kazakhstan

Yevgeniya A. Nadezhuk

al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Almaty, Republic of Kazakhstan

Archival Documents on the European Prisoners of World War I in the Semirechye Oblast of the Turkestan General Governorship: A Case Study

Abstract

The article uses the method of case study and draws on documents discovered by the authors in the fonds of the Central State Archive of the Republic of Kazakhstan (TsSA RK) to reconstruct the captivity in Semirechye of a party of prisoners of war from German and Austro-Hungarian armies. The purpose of this work is to study microhistory and history of the everyday life of the European prisoners of World War I in Kazakhstan: their welfare and economic conditions, social and ethno-confessional relations in their world, their interactions with local population, material evidence of their activity, which is still partially preserved in present-day Almaty. The authors have drawn on the following types of sources: archival documents and photographs from the fonds of the TsSA RK (some of them are introduced into scientific use for the first time); materials of periodicals of the studied period; statistical data, etc. Analysis of these sources allows to reconstruct the full picture of captivity of a group of European POWs in the Semirechye Oblast of the Turkestan General Governorship. The POWs participated in road laying and road repair in Verny and in the Pishpek uezd. Their living conditions, although comfortless, little differed from those of the local population. When at work, the POWs were provided with hot meals, which were even modified according to their national tastes. Medical services were elementary and fell almost completely to the POWs themselves. Their treatment by locals was ambiguous, but not hostile. There seemed to be no ideological tinting to their interactions with building authorities or locals. In the authors’ opinion, to reconstruct a more complete and detailed picture of interactions and mutual influences of different races, every one which had their own influence on the course of the Kazakhstan history, further research is necessary.

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Keywords

Archival documents, sources, prisoners of war, World War I, Europeans, Kazakhstan, road works.

References

BATALIN, V. N. Voennoplennye v kinokhronike Pervoi mirovoi voiny. 1914–1916 gg. [Prisoners of War in the newsreel of the First World War. 1914-1916. In Russ.]. IN: Vestnik Arhivista / Herald of an Archivist, 2014, no. 1, pp. 124–143.

SENYAVSKAYA, E. S. Polozhenie russkikh voennoplennykh v gody Pervoi mirovoi voiny: ocherk povsednevnoi real'nosti [The situation of Russian prisoners of war during the First World War: An outline of everyday reality. In Russ.]. IN: Vestnik RUDN. Seriya “Istoriya” [Proceedings of the RUDN. Series ‘History’], 2013, no. 1, pp. 64–83.

About authors

Mendikulova Gulnara Malbagarovna, PhD in History, professor, Satbayev University, Humanities department, professor, Almaty, Republic of Kazakhstan, +7-701-710-05-07, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Nadezhuk Evgenia Adolphovna, Master of Arts, al-Farabi Kazakh National University, department of world history, historiography and source studies, doctoral candidate, Almaty, Republic of Kazakhstan, +7-701-355-99-28, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Submitted 13.02.2018, published:

MENDIKULOVA, G. M., NADEZHUK, E. A. Arkhivnye dokumenty o evropeiskikh voennoplennykh Pervoi mirovoi voiny v Semirechenskoi oblasti Turkestanskogo general-gubernatorstva (Case study) [Archival Documents on the European Prisoners of World War I in the Semirechye Oblast of the Turkestan General Governorship: A Case Study. In Russ.]. IN: Vestnik arhivista / Herald of an Archivist, 2018, no. 4, pp. 996-1008. doi 10.28995/2073-0101-2018-4-996-1008

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