Abstract
Humanitarian issues associated with the personal data identifi cation and the burial sites clarifi cation of captured war prisoners, play an important role to maintain a favorable environment of international relations. The article is focused on the problem of the presence of foreign war prisoners in Chelyabinsk District in 1943–1947. Although there is a large number of national and world scientifi c researches on military captivity issues, the data on the South- Ural Region have not been introduced into the scientifi c circulation. The source base includes the materials from the Russian State Military Archive, State Archive of the Russian Federation, published materials on the history of military captivity and memoirs of eyewitnesses. The authors analyzed the quantitative and qualitative number of war prisoners and civilian internees, their living conditions, medical care, their morbidity and mortality rates as well as described the process of repatriation. The number of foreign war prisoners and internees who were in the camps of Chelyabinsk District amounted to 101 000. The Germans, the Romanians, the Hungarians and the Austrians represented their main part. The study revealed that the Soviet authorities tried hard to accomplish the international requirements concerning the maintenance of war prisoners and the regional specifi cs did not play a signifi cant role in it. The regional specifi cs concerning the maintenance of war prisoners was provided by the remoteness of Chelyabinsk District from the war and the large industrial enterprises.
Keywords
World War II, war prisoners, Chelyabinsk District, maintenance, repatriation
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