UDC

94(479.22)

DOI

1 0D.17238/issn2227-6564.2019.4.26

Authors

Vladimir P. Motrevich
Ural State Law University; ul. Komsomol’skaya 21, Yekaterinburg, 620137, Russian Federation; e-mail: vladimir.motrevich@mail.ru

Abstract

This article presents data on the number of foreign prisoners of war in World War II and those interned in the USSR as well as shows the dynamics of the number of institutions of the Soviet NKVD’s Main Directorate for Prisoner of War and Internee Affairs during the war and in the first post-war years. Further, the paper dwells on the Directorate’s camps and their divisions in the Georgian SSR. Final data on the number of camps and their divisions in Georgia in 1942–1950 is provided, the period of their operation and their location are determined. The author established that there had been 10 such camps and 66 divisions in the Republic. The longest operating camp in Georgia – the Transcaucasian Camp No. 181 – was located in the city of Rustavi and closed in May 1950. The number of prisoners of war and internees in Georgia reached its maximum in the autumn of 1945. Starting from 1946, due to the launched repatriation campaign, the number of camps and prisoners went gradually down. Further, the article presents data on the national composition and mortality of the prisoners of war and internees in the Republic. Foreign prisoners of war and interned persons were also members of separate labour battalions of the People’s Commissariat for Defence of the USSR. The author established that 18 such battalions were stationed in Georgia in 1945–1949. Data on the location of separate labour battalions, their period of operation and sexual composition of their contingent are introduced into literature for the first time.

Keywords

World War II, Georgian SSR, prisoners of war, internees, camp division, labour battalion, special hospital, repatriation

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