Reds of “Budyonny’s Cavalry Army” (Konarmia) the key Bolshevik fire brigade of the Russo-Polish War. Note the mix of French Adrian helmets, Cossack shapskas and Trotsky caps for headgear. Also note the Cossack at the left is wearing the 1909 pattern officer’s sam browne web gear to include a trench whistle near his left armpit. As pre-Civil War Cossack officers in the Konarmia were rare (Budenny himself had only been a senior NCO in the Imperial Dragoons) this officer is likely had an interesting tale– though notably he has ditched his shoulder boards. Then again he could just be a guy who found some web gear.
Sputnik, which is more or less a pro-Russian propaganda site masquerading as news, kind of Moscow’s Fox News if you will, actually has an interesting historical piece about the lost Bolshevik Red Army POWs from the 1919-21 Russo-Polish War.
Of course it bends to the East in slant, but honestly I have never read anything about this facet of that war before, so I found it a good read, especially as they tried to spin the Katyn Massacres of World War II as a sort of fair-play retaliation for what happened back in 1921. Whatever you have to tell yourself to get through the night…
During the Polish-Soviet war over 150,000 Soviet military servicemen became prisoners of war and were held in Polish POW camps. The camps were located in Strzalkowo, Pikulice, Wadowice, and Tuchola.
Professor Gennady F. Matveyev of Moscow State University carried out thorough research on the matter and published the book “Polskiy Plen” (“The Polish Captivity”) which sheds light on this controversial historical episode.
Citing Russian and Polish archival documents the professor underscores that Poland had captured up to 206,877 Red Army soldiers, while 60,000 to 83,500 died in captivity due to unbearable living conditions, poor nutrition, torture and disease.
