SUMMARY:

The eastern front of World War I became an arena of confrontation between multinational empires in which every path was tried to weaken the fighting potential of the warring sides through nationalist appeal. Multiethnic empires attempted to accommodate these new challenges and their policies were often wrought with ambiguity. The experience of prisoners of war (POWs) provides a window on the ambiguous wartime policies of empire. The article draws on the history of propaganda projects directed toward the POWs and explores the wartime construction of the enemy, the common and distinguishing features of policies toward members of national minorities of the respective empires as well as attempts to draft them into military units.
The implementation of separatist propaganda and novel practices of World War I reflected the conflict between contradictory factors: a colonial discourse, modern concepts of nationhood, the norms of international law, organizational difficulties, and the demands of the wartime economy. Conflict also existed between different political and military institutions of authority and actors as well as their visions of postwar settlement. All warring sides sought to enlist minority POWs into military service. The difference was encapsulated in the goals, scope, and outcomes of this policy. Overall, the policy of privileged status, propaganda, and recruitment of targeted groups of POWs was a relative success in all empires. Moreover, this policy demonstrated unintended outcomes in the form of spiraling national separatism, which was one of the causes of the collapse of premodern empires in Central and Eastern Europe.