Prisoners of war and women: between loyalty and treason (gender aspects of captivity during the First World War)

The First World War changed the lives of women no less than direct participation in the war for men. In the absence of the head of the family, it was necessary not only to replace him, but also to take responsibility for the maintenance of family members, children or elderly parents. During the war, women had to make some decisions without precedents before. Mostly women started working, but their wages were much lower than those of men doing similar work. There was no great help from the state. In addition, women who were in a civil marriage, according to the law, did not receive anything at all in return for the lost income of a conscripted to the army man. The waiting time for the men was endless, but after 1918, the women hoped that their husbands would return home from the battlefield and from the pow camps. The article cites written primary sources that clearly and figuratively reveal the research problem: petitions, letters, records in metric books. Some statistical data are also given, and relations with the population of Siberia, including the Cossack population, are briefly highlighted. The internal political situation in Russia, the revolution and Hungarian-Russian diplomatic relations made it difficult to return for prisoners of war. The prisoners had to wait a long time for their return to their homeland, where they returned finally in the early 1920s. The women's expectations were complicated by the fact that even after the start of state repatriation, no one could be sure that their husbands would necessarily return home with this or that group of prisoners of war. So women actually had two choices: either they faithfully waited for their husbands to return, or, having rethought the values of marital fidelity, sought new male support periodically.

First World War, Russian captivity, prisoners of war, women, waiting, loyalty, infidelity, marriage, missing persons, family

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