Russian prisoners of war in Austria-Hungary and Germany during World War І (a brief historiographical overview)

Abstract

The article provides a historiographical review of scientific works devoted to the problem of Russian prisoners of war in Austria-Hungary and Germany during World War І. The authors traced the development and features of coverage of this topic in foreign and Ukrainian historiography. Based on a critical approach, the contribution of leading researchers to the study of the legal status of prisoners of war, their life, medical care, use at work, cultural life in camps and return home after the war is considered.

The aim of the article is to systematize the scientific achievements of leading researchers, identify the features of historiographical approaches and determine promising areas of further research in the study of the humanitarian aspects of captivity during the First World War.

Special attention is paid to the change in methodological approaches - from the first studies written immediately after the events to modern developments using interdisciplinary methods and a wide source base. The study revealed that the mentioned historiographical directions had their own peculiarities and limitations: Western researchers preferred to generalize humanitarian and international legal aspects. The Ukrainian historiographical tradition, which was initially focused on studying the features of national educational work among Ukrainian prisoners, is gradually expanding the range of research questions.

The applied methods of historiographical analysis, historical-comparative and historical-typological methods, as well as the hermeneutic approach and bibliographical heuristics allowed a comprehensive study of the development of scientific approaches in the two main historiographical traditions, to identify common and distinctive features in the interpretation of the problem of military captivity and to systematize the main conclusions regarding the current state of study of the topic.

The results of the study indicate that foreign historiography on the problem of Russian prisoners of war in Germany and Austria-Hungary during the First World War focused mainly on humanitarian and international legal aspects, while Ukrainian scientific works initially focused on national educational activities among prisoners, gradually expanding the topics of research.

Based on the analysis, little-studied aspects of the problem and promising directions for further research are outlined, in particular: the daily life of prisoners, psychological aspects of being in captivity, the formation of national identity in the camp environment, a comparative analysis of the situation of prisoners of different nationalities, post-war repatriation of prisoners of war. The considered historiographical works create the basis for further study of this humanitarian aspect of World War І at both foreign and national levels.