| 09 November 2023
Posted in
Publication of archival documents
Batalin V.N. Krasnogorsk, Russian Federation
Prisoners of war in World War I newsreel. 1914–1916
Annotation
During World War I the attitude to enemy prisoners of war in Russia was quiet. Prisoners of war treated normally both soldiers, and the population of Russia. At the population it wasn't succeeded to create an image of the enemy. People didn't see need for "total war". It was one of the reasons on which the army twice in 1917 turned the weapon against the government. So the army showed the attitude to war. The population supported army in this point. In the Russian state archive of cinema and photo documents (RGAKFD) there are information about 20 documentary films (1914-1916). Prisoners of war of Austro-Hungary, Germany and Turkey were shown in these movies. Not all these shootings remained up to now. Available filmings can be divided into three groups, by quantity of the main battlefields (West European, East European (Russian) and Caucasian): the English and French chronicle tells about a war course on the West European battlefield. In it are shown German and Austro-Hungarian captured (there are also shots from the Egyptian front including a convoy English soldiers of captured Turkish soldiers); the Russian military chronicle which has depicted captured in fights Austro-Hungarian, German and Turkish prisoners of war; the rare chronicle which shows loading of Austrian captured in one of the Serbian ports; the German chronicle of 1916 (captured French and English soldiers in France (Peronn); the chronicle of October, 1917 - a convoy on the Italian front of captured Italian soldiers, the Italian soldiers in concentration camp).
Keywords
Sources, the Russian state archive of cinema and photo documents (RGAKFD), World War I, prisoners of war, archive documents.
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About the authors
Batalin Victor Nikolaevich - main expert in the Russian state archive of cinema and photo documents, Russian Federation, Krasnogorsk, 8-495-562-23-46; This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it