Reports of Delegations of the Union of the Liberation of Ukraine as a Source for Studying Specifics of International Relations and Conditions of Stay of Prisoners of the Tsarist Army in Austria-Hungary, 1915

Abstract

The article analyses the source and information potential of the reports of the delegations of the Union for the Liberation of Ukraine, which were sent to multinational camps of captured soldiers of the tsarist army for the purpose of compiling lists of Ukrainians for their subsequent transfer to the Ukrainian Freistadt camp. The importance of the topic chosen for research lies in the fact that the information gleaned from these reports makes it possible to clarify in detail the main manifestations of the daily life of prisoners, as well as to learn some features of their national character. At the same time, the mentioned reports fully illustrate certain aspects of the organizational activities of the Union, which made it possible to lay a lasting foundation for the unity of Ukrainians in the multinational camps of prisoners of war from the tsarist army. The stay of the IED delegates in the camps made it possible to form a small circle of Ukrainian activists capable of risking their lives to carry out the difficult task of spreading national liberation ideas among prisoners of the tsarist army. The methods used by the author of this article include the narrative methodology, which involves the description of a social phenomenon, as well as military anthropology, with its focus on the study of world pictures, symbolic systems and fundamental forms of human behavior, mostly hidden and not clearly formulated. It became possible to analyze the general psychological state of prisoners in the conditions of camp isolation thanks to the use of the methodology of social determinism. The characteristics of the national types of prisoners of the tsarist army are of significant scientific interest, the knowledge of which is an important task of Ukrainian historical science — especially in the light of the Russian-Ukrainian war of 2022–2023. Studying the mental traits of captured Russians and Russified Jews, who were ready for any tricks against those Ukrainians who dared to have their own opinion, allows us to understand the depth of the fall of the modern Russian ethno-social conglomerate.