With prisoners of war acted as required by the conscience of Wielkopolska
Soviet story gives us multiple descriptions of the horrors of military captivity during the periods of the Great Patriotic War, in the second half of the past century, materials of Soviet concentration camps were made public. The works of great authors and the memoirs of eyewitnesses are devoted to these terrible facts, however, there were no less shocking events in our history that the Soviet authorities tried not to consider. Moreover, in the modern school curriculum, the Polish-Soviet war is mentioned only in passing, as a short-term one. Educators prefer to pay attention to civil war and forget about the huge number of victims of Polish concentration camps. If you believe the data of Polish extras, then in just three years of their existence, up to 18 thousands of unfortunate people were destroyed in them, but independent researchers, as well as Russian and Ukrainian historians refer to a figure five times larger.Why did the Soviet authorities not pay attention to such a topic as the fate of prisoners of war in the war of the Soviets and Poland? Maybe because attempts to protect them from bullying and humiliation by the Bolsheviks were unsuccessful and very inept. It is also possible that the Soviet authorities discredited the fact that the Red Army units not only failed from such a relatively small state like Poland, but were, in fact, left to the mercy of fate and the victor’s mercy. Only, reading in the fragments of memories and documents, do you understand how disastrous the situation of the captured Red Army men was. Why did the Poles have such hatred for the Bolsheviks and why did they torture the defenseless with such pleasure?
Relations between Poland and the Russian Empire, and in consequence the USSR, have always been at least hostile, but during the crisis period they became seriously aggravated. The abolition of the Brest peace and the transfer of the Red Army to the territories liberated by German troops and the emergence of Soviet Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine also contributed to the tension of relations. The Polish leadership claimed the said lands and could not accept their transfer to the power of the Soviets. Hate, on the other hand, was largely fearful, since the “communist contagion” was seriously frightened in Europe after the 1917 year. In the testimonies of contemporaries, one can see that the Bolsheviks were precisely afraid and sought to exterminate at the first opportunity. The fact is that the Bolsheviks perceived the population of Poland as invaders, and their desire to “wake up” the world revolution was not very popular here. The goals of the Soviet government also cannot be called righteous, since the main task of the Bolsheviks at this stage was to bring the “center of revolution” to the international arena and, first of all, to Germany, the path to which lay through Poland.
During the hostilities, a colossal number of soldiers were captured. The Poles seized thousandths of the Red Army, which often included civilian personnel, including women. Bullying by the Polish military was known far beyond the occupied territories. Various kinds of violence were accompanied by murders and beatings, as well as mass arson and sometimes extermination of entire settlements. The Soviet authorities tried to respond with countermeasures against the population of Poland, but the atrocity did not reach such proportions. It must be said that the detachments of Budyonny, and from the Polish side, Balakhovich, were particularly brutal. Bullying took on a mass character and was so perverted that when reading eyewitness and survivor testimonies, it was doubtful whether these executioners had a human appearance and a spark of reason. The forces were not equal, because, except for the Polish army, supported by strong European powers, the Soviets had to fight with the white movement. However, all the tortures in the occupied territories are fading against the background of the fury of anger and hatred of the Bolsheviks in the concentration camps.
To be precise, the Red Army men died not only in the camps, but also on the way to them. Embittered Polish soldiers and commanders were especially pleased with the bullying of defenseless prisoners. As is often the case, modern representatives of Poland either speak a little differently about the lawlessness that was happening on their territory, underestimating the number of the dead and keeping silent about some glaring events. However, most of the atrocities against Ukrainians, Russians and Belarusians are still not concealed. A lot of documentary evidence of the cruel treatment of prisoners does not allow to interpret the story in the aspect in which Europe would like to see it.
Most often in the references to the places of prisoners of war you can find such names as Brest Fortress, Tuchol, Minsk, Stshalkovo, Wadovitsy and at least a dozen more camps and locations. Thanks largely to the materials of the representative of the Russian Red Cross in Poland, Stefania Semplowska, we can restore the tragic picture of these places for the destruction of the Soviet people. Very clearly described the conditions of stay of prisoners in his article by the researcher Maliszewski, based on documents from both the Soviet side and the Polish press of those early years.
Particularly striking is the case of Wagner and Malinovsky, former commanders in the Strzalkovo concentration camp. The captain and the lieutenant found it a special pleasure to beat half-dead people with whips made of barbed wire. The crimes of these two villains became known to the public at the moment when a detachment of Lithuanian deserters entered the camp, some of whom were killed in the very first days.
We are well aware of how the fascists subjected people to torment, but if we look at the Polish camps, then they were no better, and perhaps worse. People are practically not fed, in the hope that most of them will die of starvation. Most of the barracks were uninhabitable, and medical assistance was not provided at all. The wounded had practically no chance of survival, and the healthy ones endured epidemics of dysentery, as well as typhoid, several times a season. In untreated wounds, worms bred, and in the barracks there was a stench from rotting flesh, feces and the sick. The air itself in the camps was infectious and destructive. Many in the first months fell ill with tuberculosis. Not only there were not enough shops in the premises, but even the most necessary hygiene devices could not be met. The walls were practically not protected from the cold and were made either from rotten boards or from sheet metal, and people slept right on the ground. No straw or hay was given to the prisoners, which contributed to the development of colds. The situation was aggravated by the lack of latrines, so intestinal infections spread. People were so hungry that they chose to clean from dung heaps. Even hot water was a rarity and a boon.
The camp commanders did not care about the most basic measures to isolate contagious patients, as a result of which the prisoners died out in dozens of days. Only in Tuchola, according to the secret report of Lieutenant Colonel Matushevsky, about 22-thousand people died. That is why Tuchol was named the death camp, although other places differed little from it. In this terrible place, which became the grave for a huge number of young Soviet children, there were practically no healthy people. Even the simplest accessories, such as bandages, were not enough, and doctors had to wash and dry them, removing them from the dead. The convoy treated the prisoners as slaves, and even worse than cattle. Murder and torture became ubiquitous entertainment, and local residents recalled that the burial grounds were so overcrowded that the land did not always cover the remains.
All prisoners of war were conventionally divided into Russian White Guards, Soviet Poles, Red Armymen and Bolsheviks. The position of the Bolsheviks was the most difficult, they often settled in unheated barracks, did not have warm clothes and shoes and practically did not feed. Their life was subordinated to the prison regime and was not evaluated at all. These prisoners were absolutely powerless and for open mockery of them, as, by the way, the jailers were not condemned for the murder.
In early November 1919, agreements were signed on the exchange of prisoners, with the result that 400 people were sent to the territory of the Soviets. However, due to the fact that there were far fewer Polish prisoners in Russia, the question of returning the Red Army soldiers did not receive permission in the future. In September, 1920, Brodovsky signed an agreement on the transfer of part of Soviet prisoners in exchange for Polish ones, but Moscow considered such an agreement unprofitable and again left the Red Army in the camps. Nevertheless, attempts were made to establish relations with Poland, but with Józef Pilsudski, who were fanatically dreaming of reviving the greatness of the Commonwealth, it was extremely difficult to establish contact. The lack of desire to negotiate was largely based on the active support of the Polish military forces by France and Great Britain. As a result, hell for Soviet prisoners of war lasted for three years, which far from all survived.
To this day, the fate of many thousands of Soviet prisoners of war is not known. The belligerents did not achieve their goals, the territories were divided. Some of them nevertheless became part of the USSR, but the price for them was paid too high. Once Minister Sapega was asked about the fate of prisoners of war, to which he replied that they would do with them, as the conscience of the great Poland demands. Judging by the fate of the unfortunate, the conscience in the concept of the minister was a very specific concept.
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