Prisoners of World War I in the Omsk Irtysh region: names, statuses, memory

Abstract

The publication does not simply review the inter-fonds name index of prisoners of World War I mentioned in the metric books of churches in the Omsk region (1914–1920). It is shown how formalized information from metric records can be interpreted from the point of view of both nominative and statistical approaches. It is emphasized that in the light of the data of the reviewed publication, the
fate of captured foreigners in Russia ceases to look like non-alternative and predetermined, and the prisoners themselves — only victims of war, victimized objects. The participation of prisoners of war in the life of host communities allows specifying the degree of impact of captivity on the institutions and practices common in provincial Russia, as well as considering captured foreigners as people whose destinies turned out to be decisive for the destinies of thousands of other people who lived yesterday and live today.