Prisoners of the World War I in Siberia and Russian Far East in the Focus of International Humanitarian Law

The purpose and objectives of the article are to analyze the application of humanitarian law in relation to prisoners of the First World War. The research focuses on the situation in the Siberian and Far Eastern camps of Russia during the Civil War (1918-1922). A number of solid scientific works are devoted to the treatment of foreign prisoners of war in 1914-1918 in Europe and the Russian Empire, while the adaptation of international law in the context of the statehood’s destruction and the decentralization of power is rarely the subject of distinct exercise. Bridging the gaps, the authors studied, how the successive regimes in the eastern part of Russia observed the IV Hague Convention with Respect to the Laws and Customs of War on Land (October 18, 1907), as the main set of rules that protected prisoners of war. Methodological approach. The situation of captured members of the Central Powers’ armies in Siberia and the Russian Far East was studied on the basis of a set of published and unpublished archival documents. The revealed facts were analyzed in comparison with articles of the IV Hague Convention. It was established how the legal status of prisoners of war changed in 1918-1922, how the conditions for their maintenance and employment were ensured. The role played by foreign charitable organizations in the life of the camps is considered. Results and conclusions. Based on the results of the research, the authors came to the conclusion that during the years of the revolutionary struggle in Siberia and the Far East, the Russian authorities ensured the rights of foreign prisoners of war within the limits of reasonable humanism. However, violations of the IV Hague Convention’s articles were dictated not only by the objective realities of a large-scale crisis in the region, but also by the unfolding information war. The originality and value of the work lies in the study of the situation of prisoners of the First World War in the east of Russia on the basis of the source base expanding and analysis of the application of international law during the Civil War.

World War I, Russian Civil War, prisoners of war, international humanitarian law, archival documents