| Camps For Russian Prisoners And Internees In Poland 1919-1924 |
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Camps for Russian prisoners and internees in Poland that existed during 1919-1924 housed two main categories of detainees:
Between 16,000 to 20,000 of Soviet POWs - out of 80,000 - died in Polish camps. POLISH-RUSSIAN FINDINGS ON THE SITUATION OF RED ARMY SOLDIERS IN POLISH CAPTIVITY (1919–1922) . Official Polish government note about 2004 Rezmar, Karpus and Matvejev boook. Last accessed on 26 May, 2006. BACKGROUND During the Polish-Soviet War , between 80,000-85,000 Waldemar Rezmer , Zbigniew Karpus , Gennadij Matvejev , ''"Krasnoarmieitsy v polskom plenu v 1919–1922 g. Sbornik dokumentov i materialov"'', Federal Agency for Russian Archives, Moscow 2004 Soviet soldiers became Prisoners Of War and were held in Polish POW Camp s. The conditions in these camps were bad, as the newly recreated Polish state lacked many basic capabilities and had few resources to construct them. Thus the existing camps, many of which were adapted from World War I German and Russian facilities or constructed by the prisoners themselves, were not adequate for holding the large number of prisoners, who suffered from hunger, bad sanitation and inadequate hygiene. Between 16,000 (Polish figures) and 20,000 (Russian figures) died, mostly as a result of catastrophic conditions and Epidemic s which raged in the camps, especially the post-WWI Spanish Flu Pandemic . Before publications of new findings in Russia in 2004, some Russian sources were known to give a much inflated numbers for prisoners and the death toll (up to 165,000 and 70,000), respecively. This matter caused much controversy between Poland and Russia. POLISH-RUSSIAN FINDINGS ON THE SITUATION OF RED ARMY SOLDIERS IN POLISH CAPTIVITY (1919–1922) . Official Polish government note about 2004 Rezmar, Karpus and Matvejev boook. Last accessed on 26 May, 2006. THE CAMPS During a war between two countries experiencing great socioeconomic difficulties, and often unable to provide adquately for their own populations, the treatment of Prisoners Of War was far from adequate. The bad conditions in these camps were known to Public Opinion in Poland at the time, as a number of Polish newspapers openly wrote about them, criticizing the government for not correcting the situation. Little public awareness about this part of Polish history exists in present day Polish society, but the issue has been addressed in a number of scholarly publications. Karpus, Zbigniew , ''Jeńcy i internowani rosyjscy i ukraińscy na terenie Polski w latach 1918-1924'', Toruń 1997, ISBN 83-7174-020-4. Polish table of contents online . English translation: ''Russian and Ukrainian prisoners of war and internees kept in Poland in 1918-1924'', Wydawn. Adam Marszałek, 2001, ISBN 83-7174-956-2. Eventually the prisoners were exchanged, , N81, 2002 LOCATIONS POW camp locations Interned camp locations
Concentration camp and centre locations Exchange centre locations THE CONTROVERSY Until the source documents were published in Moscow in 2004, some Russian historians have estimated the number of prisoners and the death toll to be much higher, estimating that the death toll was between 40,000 to 100,000. For example, , Zbigniew Karpus , Gennadij Matvejev , ''"Krasnoarmieitsy v polskom plenu v 1919–1922 g. Sbornik dokumentov i materialov"'', Federal Agency for Russian Archives, Moscow 2004, p.671 Some Russian historians used those numbers to justify the Katyn Massacre . George Sanford , ''Katyn And The Soviet Massacre Of 1940: Truth, Justice And Memory'', Routledge, 2005, ISBN 0-415-33873-5, Google Print, p.8 The Russian historians arrived at this number by first estimating the number of POWs, then subtracting the number that has been repatriated to the Soviet Union after the hostilities ended, and then assuming that most of the remainder died in POW camps. Polish historians always countered this by arguing that: (a) the number of POWs was very difficult to estimate accurately, due to the chaotic situation prevailing for most of the war, and (b) many Soviet POWs lost that status after they switched sides and entered units fighting alongside Polish forces against the Red Army. The Russians, however, point at the estimations, that the number of those switched sides could not exceed 15,000. There was also the problem that significant number of Russian POWs were left in the territory of Poland since WWI (about 3.9 million soldiers of the Russian Empire were taken captive by the Central Powers ) and obviously when the Polish-Soviet conflict deteriorated, these POWs were not released to Russia. The issue was finally settled in 2004, where a joint team of Polish and Russian historians (prof. Waldemar Rezmer and prof. Zbigniew Karpus from Nicolaus Copernicus University In Toruń and prof. Gennady Matveyev from Moscow State University ), after reexamining documents from Polish and Russian archives published their results (printed in Russia by Federal Agency For Russian Archives ). Their findings show that the number of Russian POWs can be estimated from 80,000 to 85,000 and that the number of deaths in the camps can be estimated from 16,000 (Karpus, Rezmer) to 20,000 (Matvejev). They also show that the cause of death were various ilnesses and epidemics ( Spanish Flu , Typhus , Cholera and Shigellosis ), which were at that time rampant throughout the whole of Europe and caused hundreds of thousands of death not only among POWs, but also among fighting soldiers and civilian population.. A similar number of Polish POWs - about 20,000 out of about 51,000 - died in Soviet and Lithuanian camps.Karpus, Zbigniew, Alexandrowicz Stanisław, ''Zwycięzcy za drutami. Jeńcy polscy w niewoli (1919-1922). Dokumenty i materiały'' (Victors behind the fences. Polish POWs (1919-1922). Documents and materials). Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Mikołaja Kopernika w Toruniu, Toruń, 1995, ISBN 83-231-0627-4 SEE ALSO
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