Refugee Movement

REFUGEE MOVEMENT, a term for designating the mass flight of people escaping some natural or destructive social disaster (war, earthquake, flood, great fires). In our country, the term R. received wide application during and after the imperialist (partly civil) war. The imperialist war, unprecedented in the area of its spread, in the number of masses involved in this war, in the cruelty and destructiveness of modern military forms of destruction, caused an unprecedented development of R. throughout the area of military operations in Western Europe and Russia; a particular development of R. was obtained in the latter. This was facilitated by the specific conditions of tsarist Russia: the tsarist government, having entered the war, was forced to begin it on the western border, where a mass of population of various nationalities is concentrated—Poles, Jews, Ukrainians, Belarusians; soon the war also began on the Caucasian-Turkish borders, also populated by an 'indigenous' population. The internal policy of the tsarist government always sought an enemy first inside the country, and the first such 'enemy' were considered various 'indigenes', and among them the most suspicious—Poles and Jews, and doubtful—Ukrainians, Belarusians, etc. Therefore, R. in Russia touched first the indigenous groups of the population, first of all—Jews and Poles. The flight of Jews was preceded by the phase of the memorable 'expulsion': on the grounds of suspicion of 'treason' and 'espionage', a mass expulsion of Jews (partly Poles) began from the front zone. Expellees with and without families, regardless of sex and age, healthy and sick, sometimes in 'plugged' wagons, with the inscription 'spies', 'traitors', were transported from their settled native places to alien, remote, distant places in central Russia, part of Siberia and the outskirts. But soon R. became an elemental mass movement, having captured millions of the population. The peak of R. coincided with the peak of military defeats on the western border—spring and summer 1915. Unfolding as a civil elemental disaster, R. revealed the size and depth of this phenomenon from the point of view of state, social, economic, sanitary, and biological. Subsequent partial surveys, for example, the census of refugees made by the Jewish Committee for the Aid of Refugees (EKOP), showed that only in the economic, financial sense R. inflicted billion-dollar damage on the state and the population's economy. The sanitary and biological consequences of R. were increased general mortality and morbidity, the spread of epidemics, high child mortality, intensified extinction of old ages, deep traumatization of the nervous-psychic system, widespread trauma, etc. The actual dimensions of the Russian R. of the imperialist (and partly civil) war, in general, are statistically not accurately accounted for. Numerical material for characterizing mortality, morbidity, epidemics, etc., unfortunately, is not compiled; however, vivid figures of the R. epidemics, child mortality, trauma, nervous-psychic trauma can be found in the 'Proceedings' and periodical publications of the Zemstvo and City Unions, in the 'News of the Society for the Protection of the Health of the Jewish Population' (OZE), in the materials of 'refugee congresses', which, incidentally, took place in a significant number (in the form of conferences) in the period 1915-18 years. Refugee congresses and conferences were convened both national and all-Russian. During the imperialist war, the accounting of refugees related only to those refugees who came under the maintenance of one or another organization for the aid of refugees. Such organizations were numerous; first of all, a number of national organizations were created—Jewish, Polish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Armenian, etc., a special All-Russian philanthropic organization of a government-public character was created, the so-called Tatyaninsky Committee (under the patronage of Nicholas II's daughter—Tatiana); the cause of aiding refugees was widely engaged by the All-Russian Union of Cities, the All-Russian Zemstvo Union, and the Red Cross. In 1915, a special government organization—the 'Special Conference for the Arrangement of Refugees'—was created (to a considerable extent under pressure from foreign public opinion), which through its central and peripheral organs (Governor's Conferences) managed the territorial distribution and movement of refugees throughout Russia and the distribution of government funds for the cause of aiding refugees. After the October Revolution, the cause of aiding refugees was distributed between two commissariats: Social Security—for the non-working and Labor—for the working. After the Brest Treaty, the question of re-evacuation of refugees and prisoners of war became acute; for this purpose a special organization was created (decree of the Council of People's Commissars of April 27, 1918), which was briefly called 'Tsentr-polezh'. The number of refugees on February 1, 1917 (according to data of the Tatyaninsky Committee) was estimated at over 3 million, but this number, undoubtedly, is significantly lower than the actual one for the reason already mentioned (accounting only of dependents of various organizations), and because, according to data of public organizations, the number of refugees turned out to be significantly larger. The indicated number of refugees, in its main mass, by nationalities was distributed as follows: Russians (mainly Belarusians and Ukrainians)—1,726,068—54%; Poles—513,434—16.3%; Latvians—285,814—8.8%; Jews—199,885—6.2% (according to data of central Jewish public organizations—the number is 2 times higher); Armenians—120,167—3.8%; Lithuanians—85,552—2.7%; others (mainly German colonists)—192,596—6.0%; of unknown nationality—76,986—2.2%. The regions of 'expulsion' of refugees were, mainly, Lithuania and Belarusia—1,320,511 persons, Ukraine—537,679, Baltic region—382,435, Poland—334,663, Kholm Governorate—271,436, Turkey—126,957, Galicia—95,102, Caucasus—20,843, Bessarabia—2,315, other regions and unknown—181,431. The main regions of 'settlement' of refugees were: central governorates of European Russia—850,203 persons, front zone—690,405, Volga region—393,183, northern governorates—187,552, Caucasus—180,621, Siberia and Central Asia—106,158, Ural governorates—94,504 (data of the Tatyaninsky Committee for 1917). One third of the entire refugee mass (36.5%) was settled in cities, the remaining mass in districts. About 1 billion rubles were spent on the cause of aiding refugees. At first, in the first period of elemental R., aid was rendered, mainly, on voluntary donations, mainly along the line of national organizations. Means were mobilized inside the country (donations, self-imposition) and aid was received from foreign public organizations. The aid of the latter was very significant. For example, one Jewish Committee for the Aid of Refugees (EKOP) in 3 years received from foreign organizations more than 11 million rubles. The Special Conference for the Arrangement of Refugees in 1916 spent on aiding refugees about 200 million rubles, which constituted 65-70% of all funds spent in that year. Refugee movement as a socio-biological and socio-pathological phenomenon has not yet been subjected to serious study, and our rich materials in this direction are still archival (materials are now concentrated in the archives of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the RSFSR). The question of the study of R. was placed on the agenda of the Narkozdrav RSFSR in the Commission for the Study of Sanitary Consequences of War III (see 'Proceedings' of this Commission). Partial valuable materials for illuminating the question of refugee movement can be found in special periodical journals of the wartime (journal 'Pomoshch' of the Jewish Committee for Aid, journal of the Tatyaninsky Committee, publications of the Zemstvo and City Unions).