Obraz zaboru rosyjskiego w oczach żołnierzy i urzędników państw centralnych w latach 1914-1917

ENDuring World War I the troops of Germany and Austro-Hungary annexed the whole territory of the Russian partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Thus, they took control over the lands that until 1915 were making part of the Russian State, totally different as regards population, culture or nature. But describing it, they tried to fi nd common features, shared across Europe. It is possible to split the image of this pro-Russian world seen from the perspective of Central Powers into individual elements indicated the dominance of military matters (such as, for example, transportation problems), and only after that attention was shifted to other questions, characteristic of the Russian partition, which could help administer those territories in the future. In such a way the “pro-Russian” East was presented in official announcements and publications, and – initially – such was the dominant reception in personal memoirs. Therefore, the transportation infrastructure was described, the current economic state and destructions of war, next, the population (mainly its ethnic composition), and attitude towards the Central Powers, and finally cultures of local peoples was described, with their natural environment. The emerging picture was influenced strongly by the period of time that lapsed from the shift of the war front. As the front moved westwards, other countries “appeared” before the eyes of German and Austro-Hungarian soldiers. Thus, from May to August of 1915, the texts were dominated by the Kingdom of Poland, soon divided between Germany and Austria-Hungary; in September 1915 the Germans entered the Guberniya of Suwałki, then Region of Białystok, and next of Lithuania, Courland, Belarus, Polesie, and Volhynia, where the front froze until 1917.The reality of those lands was seen on the move, in different frames of reference, from the perspective of fairly stable power of governors in Warsaw and Lublin, and then of the nascent administration of the Supreme Commander of All German Forces in the East (Ober-Ost) with its centre at Kovno, and finally from Brest Litovsk and Pinsk – as the most important headquarters of the marching stages of Central Power troops in the eastern front. The impact of many years of Russian rule was presented, together with attitudes of local people towards the actual war and changes influenced both by the war and evacuation of the Russians, with attention being paid to the fact that sometimes they were surprisingly slight. Also questions of civilizational level of nations were brought up (in a more technical sense), and levels of their culture (with the emphasis upon their ethnicities). Opinions were voiced on the economic usability of these lands for Germany and potential receptivity of their people to Germanization. Seeking to build a stable reality behind the front lines, efforts were made to conduct the policy of divide and rule which, with a rudimentary knowledge about the territories under the rule, turned out to be inefficient and made the occupational authorities entangled in unavoidable contradictions and conflicts.