Political moods of forced migrants in Russia during the first world war

Abstract

Today, the study of migration remains as relevant as in the last century and, in a few last years, even more actual. The resettlement crisis, covered not only Europe, but also most countries from Mexico and Indonesia to Ukraine and Syria, has boosted interest in the political component of migration among the expert community. At the same time, the previous historical experience of mass forced migration during the First and Second World Wars is expected to be especially valuable due to its uniqueness for modern processes. These conflicts have revealed unexpectedly massive cross impact of forced resettlement both on politics and nation. As a matter of fact, migration affected on attitude towards not only the Government, but also political parties, public organizations and other active political subjects. Nevertheless, the influence of such processes on the migrants themselves used to escape researcher's attention. Eastern Siberia in that case is assumed to be indicative region as a result of the fact that it was the receiving territory for such human wave. Forced migrants appeared in the area were potential social base for political powers in the region. Considering the reasons and conditions of their movements Siberian active subjects could use them as an effective recourse in their political struggle. But how successful were they in such attempts? What hurdles did they meet on that way? Were forced migrants active and political experienced or inert and inefficient? The purpose of this paper is to find answers to these questions. The author determines and characterizes certain aspects of political moods of forced migrants, caused by world military conflict. The article analyses the level of political activity/inertia of these different groups. Eventually the author defines reasons of these processes and makes a conclusion about a forced migrant's political behaviour.