«The shameful proposal to return to the motherland…»: declaring bolshevik diplomacy of amnesty in the camp of interned soldiers-ukrainians Kalisz, Poland (1922)

• Main Author: Іhor Sribnyak
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Department of Modern and Contemporary History of Foreign Countries 2018-11-01
• Series: Європейські історичні студії
• Subjects: Interned; camp; amnesty; commission; commissioner; UNR army; Kalisz
• Online Access: http://eustudies.history.knu.ua/ihor-sribnyak-the-shameful-proposal-to-return-to-the-motherland-declaring-bolshevik-diplomacy-of-amnesty-in-the-camp-of-interned-soldiers-ukrainians-kalisz-poland-1922/

The article reproduces events, which took place on the eve of and during the announcement by the Polish-Soviet delegation of two amnesties in the camp of interned Ukrainian soldiers Kalisz (Poland) in 1922. At this time, Moscow resorted to a number of international legal steps, having declared the amnesty to the participants of armed anti-Soviet formations and initiated the creation of the Mixed Polish-Russian-Ukrainian Repatriation Commission. Its members got the right to advertise the amnesty text in the Kalisz camp, so as to encourage, as far as possible, the number of Interned to leave for Soviet Ukraine. However, their attempts to split into the ranks of the soldier proved to be in vain. During the second amnesty, the Bolshevik diplomats resorted to an individual poll of the campers, but this time most Ukrainian belligerents declared their resolute «no» to all attempts to demoralize them. Although the main team of the UРR troops, the headquarters of the group of interned and cultural and educational divisions of the division resorted to the implementation of a counter-propaganda campaign aimed at revealing the real goals of the Bolsheviks, the agitation of the latter still had its disastrous consequences. Soviet diplomacy was able to achieve its goal in part and to «lure» from Poland a fairly large group of Ukrainian warriors, incl. and some of the number of senior officers, which became a painful blow to the interned army of the UPR, the number of which in 1922 rapidly decreased due to a whole set of reasons.