Mikhail Nikolaevich Suprun,
Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, Northern (Arctic) Federal University named after M.V. Lomonosov, Arkhangelsk, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
German Captivity of the First World War in the Memoirs of the Historian M.I. Romanov
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2024-6-9
The article deals with the stay in German captivity during the First World War of the famous northern historian, folklorist and teacher Mikhail Ivanovich Romanov. The paper is based on his diaries and post-war papers, which had been preserved in the family archives of M.I. Romanov’s relatives. The diary begins with the author’s description of motives for going to the war as a volunteer and the monstrous corruption that he had to face during the time of the formation of his unit and on the way of the unit to the front. When this poorly prepared and equipped regiment to which M.I. Romanov was assigned was thrown into the battle, it was almost completely captured. The article, contrary to the existing view of the First World war captivity, shows that the majority of the Germans sympathized with the captured enemy, burghers or entrepreneurs, to whose economy the prisoners were sent, did not burden them with hard work, fed them well, but they also paid them money which was enough for the POWs to visit local bars. Sick prisoners were usually sent to Russia after passing medical examination. Moreover, there were many Russian doctors in the status of POWs, who received almost the same salary as their German colleagues. Those doctors saved a lot of lives of Russian POWs. This compendium of a multi-page diaries as well as the diaries itself, allows both to take a fresh look at the detention of prisoners of war in German camps according to their social status, the exploit of POWs at various types of work, the relationship between POWs of different nationalities, their perception of the reality... as well as it also opens new pages in the history of the First World War.
Publishing: 28/12/2024
The article has been received by the editor on 21/07/2024
How to cite: Suprun M.N. German Captivity of the First World War in the Memoirs of the Historian M.I. Romanov // Historical Courier, 2024, No. 6 (38), pp. 119–136. [Available online: http://istkurier.ru/data/2024/ISTKURIER-2024-6-09.pdf]
Links: Issue 6 2024
Keywords: World War I; German captivity; memoirs of the former POW