In 1914–1915, the Russian Empire forcibly deported local inhabitants from Russian-occupied areas of East Prussia to more remote areas of the empire, particularly Siberia. The official rationale was to reduce espionage and other resistance behind the Russian front lines. As many as 13,600 people, including children and the elderly, were deported. Due to difficult living conditions, the mortality rates were high, and only 8,300 people returned home after the war.
The deportations had not received much attention from scholars, as they were overshadowed by the much larger refugee crisis in the Russian Empire and the expulsion of Germans after World War II.
Background
Military action began on the Eastern Front on 17 August 1914 with the Battle of Stallupönen during the Russian invasion of East Prussia. As the German army was concentrated on the Western Front, Russians occupied about two-thirds of East Prussia and stood just away from Königsberg. It was the only German Empire territory, apart from Alsace-Lorraine on the Western Front, that saw direct military actions during the war. The Russians were defeated in the Battle of Tannenberg and retreated, but counterattacked in October 1914. This time, they captured about one-fifth of East Prussia. The front stabilized until February 1915 when the Russians were driven out during the Second Battle of the Masurian Lakes. These two waves of Russian attacks were accompanied by two mass population movements in different directions: locals evacuating deeper into Germany and deportations into Siberia. Contemporary estimates put the number of refugees into Germany at 870,000 in August and 300,000 in October. For comparison, the 1910 German census recorded a total population of 2,064,175 in East Prussia.
Russians deeply distrusted the German population. Even before battles began, MVD issued an order to treat every male citizen of the German Empire and Austria-Hungary between ages 18 and 45 as a civilian prisoner of war. Supposedly to prevent espionage, such people were deported out of European Russia. Such policies resulted in the deportation of some 200,000 Germans from Volhynia and Bessarabia. Generally, the internment of civilians of enemy nationality became a common practice among the warring states.
Deportations
In the occupied areas of East Prussia, Russians suspected civilians to be involved in resistance. The distrust was bolstered by cultural differences. For example, Germans owned and used bicycles that Russians associated with official or military business; Germans were also not accustomed to carrying passports or other identity papers. Local spies were used as scapegoats to justify military defeats. Additionally, the removal of adult males reduced the number of potential new recruits when the German army returned. The deportations started during the first Russian occupation, but were of smaller scale (at least 1,000 people) and targeted primarily men of military age. For example, out of 724 people deported from the Königsberg area only 10 were not adult males. Deportations during the second occupation grew in number, and included many children, women, and the elderly. In total, the deported people included about 4,000 women and 2,500 children.
The people were herded on foot or transported using requisitioned wagons to train stations, mostly in Šiauliai but also in Vilnius, packed into cattle cars, and taken on a weeks-long train journey into interior of Russia. The deportations were poorly organized and coordinated. Some Lutherans from the Šiauliai area were deported as well when they were mistaken for Germans. The officials were confused whether to treat them as refugees, deportees, civilian internees, or prisoners of war. Their condition was deplorable: many did not have basic necessities (such as money, food, warmer clothing), did not speak Russian, and did not have any papers, and the Russian government had no organized plans to provide food for the journey or housing at the destination. No care was taken to deport families together and many were split up. Due to cold and lack of food and medical care, many deportees died on the journey or soon after. For example, Prussian Lithuanian activist Martynas Jankus was deported at the end of 1914 together with his entire family to Bugulma. In his memoirs, he recounted four deaths even before reaching the train. His 85-year-old father and 4-year-old son died at the destination by mid-January 1915. In total, out of 350 deportees to Bugulma, 52 died. Felicija Bortkevičienė, who visited various deportees communities in 1916, estimated mortality rates of 15–20%.