Scholars in the service of war: The censorship of letters by Tatar prisoners of war in Germany during World War I
https://doi.org/10.26907/2311-2042-2024-23-2-81-93
Abstract
The article examines one of the interesting and little-known episodes from the history of World War I, telling about orientalist scholars involved in censoring letters from prisoners of war in German camps. This large-scale involvement of scholars in the censorship of letters from prisoners of war was a forced measure, since the military censors did not speak oriental languages. Among such letters, there were many written in the Tatar language, which was not taught at German universities before World War I. It can be assumed that it was the censorship of letters from prisoners of war in the Tatar language that to a certain extent influenced the emergence of a noticeable interest in the Tatar lan- guage in German Turkology. This is evidenced by the research work of the famous Turkologist Gotthold Weil who was responsible for the censorship of Tatar letters during the war and taught the Tatar language at the University of Berlin from 1918.
About the Author
I. A. Gilyazov
M. Khasanov Institute of Tatar Encyclopedia and Regional Studies, the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Gilyazov, Iskander – Doctor of History, Professor, Leading Researcher in the M. Khasanov Institute of Tatar Encyclopedia and Regional Studies, the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan, full member of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan
58 Pushkin Str., Kazan, 420015
References
1. Doegen, W. (1921). Kriegsgefangene Völker [Prisoners of War]. Band I: Der Kriegsgefangenenhal tung und Schicksal in Deutschland. Berlin. (In German)
2. Golovin, N. N. (1939). Voennye usiliya Rossii v mirovoi voine [Russia’s Military Efforts in the World War]. T. 1. Parizh. (In Russian)
3. Bilton, D. (2017). Allied POWs in German Hands 1914–1918 (Images of War). Pen and Sword Military. (In English)
4. Oltmer, J. (2006). Unentbehrliche Arbeitskräfte - Kriegsgefangene in Deutschland 1914–1918 [Essential Workers - Prisoners of War in Germany 1914–1918]. Jochen Oltmer (Hg.): Kriegsgefangene im Europa des Ersten Weltkriegs. Paderborn. (In German)
5. Nagornaya, O. S. (2010). Drugoi voennyi opyt. Rossiiskie voennoplennye Pervoi mirovoi voiny v Germanii. 1914–1922 [Another War Experience. Rus sian Prisoners of War during the First World War in Germany]. Moscow. (In Russian)
6. Gilyazov, I. A., Gataullina, L. R. (2014). Rossiiskie soldaty-musul'mane v germanskom plenu v gody Pervoi mirovoi voiny [Russian Muslim Soldiers in German Captivity during World War I]. Kazan', Tatarskoe knizhnoe izdatel'stvo. (In Russian)
7. Convention with Respect to the Laws and Cus toms of War on Land // https://docs.cntd.ru/document/ 901753259(In Russian)
8. Ulrich, B. (1997). Die Augenzeugen. Deutsche Feldpostbriefe in Kriegs- und Nachkriegszeit 1914 1933 [The Eyewitnesses. German Field Post Letters during the War and after the War, 1914–1933]. Essen Klartext Verlag. (In German)
9. Jones, H. (2011). Violence against Prisoners of War in the First World War: Britain, France and Ger many, 1914–1920. Cambridge and New York. (In Eng lish)
10. Abdrashitov, E. E. (2012). Pis'ma voennoplennykh Pervoi mirovoi voiny kak kanal peredachi informatsii [Letters from Prisoners of War during the First World War as a Channel of Information Transmission]. Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Istoriya, No. 3(19), pp. 30–35. (In Russian)
11. Bal'dauf, I. (2006). “Wie Blätter im Wind”. Er innerungen tatarischer Kriegsgefangener aus Wünsdorf/Berlin, 1916–1919 [“Like Leaves in the Wind”. Memories of Tatar Prisoners of War from Wünsdorf/Berlin, 1916–1919]. Istochniki i issledovaniya po istorii tatarskogo naroda: materialy k uchebnym kursam: v chest' yubileya akademika AN RT M. A. Usmanova. Sostaviteli D. M. Usmanova, D. A. Mustafina. Pp. 420–433. Kazan', Kazanskii gos. un-t. (In German)
12. Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz (GSAPK) [Secret State Archives of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (GSAPK)]. I HA, Rep. 208 A, Nr. 238 II, Bl. 167–168. (In German)
13. Ibid., Nr. 234 I, Bl. 120, 131. (In German)
14. Ibid., Nr. 235, Bl. 90. (In German)
15. Gilyazov, I. A. (2015). Germanskaya Sluzhba informatsii po Vostoku i organizatsiya pechatnoi propagandy sredi musul'manskikh narodov Rossii v gody Pervoi mirovoi voiny [The German Eastern Infor mation Service and the Organization of Printed Propa ganda among the Muslim Peoples of Russia during the First World War]. Novyi istoricheskii vestnik. No. 2(44), pp.103–115. (In Russian)
16. Bragulla, M. (2007). Die Nachrichtenstelle für den Orient. Fallstudie einer Propagandainstitution im Ersten Weltkrieg [The Eastern Information Service. Case Study of a Propaganda Institution in the First World War]. Saarbrücken. (In German)
17. Müller, H. L. (1991). Islam, “Ǧihād” und Deutsches Reich. Ein Nachspiel zur wilhelminischen Weltpolitik im Maghreb 1914–1918 [Islam, “Ǧihād” and the German Empire. An Aftermath of Wilhelmine World Politics in the Maghreb 1914–1918]. Frankfurt a. M.; Bern; New York; Paris. (In German)
18. Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz (GSAPK) [Secret State Archives of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation]. I HA, Rep. 208 A, Nr. 234 II, Bl. 86. (In German)
19. Bedri, Kemaleddin (1923). Die Zähne der Tata ren. Odentologische und craniologische Untersuchungen [The Teeth of the Tartars. Odontological and Craniologi cal Studies]. Berlin. (In German)
20. Kemaleddin Bedri (2013). Die Zähne der Tata ren. Eine zahnmedizinische Dissertation aus dem Jahre 1923 [The Teeth of the Tartars. A Dental Dissertation of 1923]. Eingeleitet, kommentiert und herausgegeben von Sebastian Cwiklinski. Berlin. (In German)
21. GSAPK, I HA, Rep. 208 A, Nr. 126, Bl.11. (In German)
22. GSAPK, I HA, Rep. 208 A, Nr. 126. (In Ger man)
23. Cwiklinski, S. (2000). Die Wolga an der Spree: Tataren und Baschkiren in Berlin [The Volga on the Spree: Tatars and Bashkirs in Berlin]. Berlin. (In Ger man)
24. Landau, J. M. (1998). Gotthold Eljakim Weil (Berlin, 1882 - Jerusalem, 1960) [Gotthold Eljakim Weil (Berlin, 1882 - Jerusalem, 1960)]. Die Welt des Islams. New Series, Vol. 38, Issue 3, The Early Twenti eth Century and Its Impact on Oriental and Turkish Studies (Nov., 1998), pp. 280–285. (In German)
25. Gilyazov, I. A. (2009). Voennoplennye tatary v Germanii v period pervoi mirovoi voiny [Tatar Prisoners of War in Germany during the First World War]. Tatarskie teksty. Na osnove plastinok, nakhodyashchikhsya v otdele zvukov Prusskoi Gosudarstvennoi biblioteki. Izdan, pereveden, annotirovan Gottkhol'dom Vailem. Pp. 9–14. Kazan', Slovo. (In Russian)
26. Gilyazov, I. A. (2015). Gottkhol'd Vail' kak issledovatel' tatar i tatarskogo yazyka [Gotthold Weil as a Researcher of Tatars and the Tatar Language]. Filologiya i kul'tura. Philology and Culture. No. 1 (39), pp. 269–274. (In Russian)
27. GSAPK, I HA, Rep. 208 A, Nr. 236 I, Bl. 81, 141; Nr. 236 II, Bl. 2, 11. (In German)
28. Ibid., Nr.236 II, Bl.108. (In German)
29. Ibid., Nr. 237 II, Bl. 171. (In German)
30. Ibid., Nr. 239 I, Bl. 34. (In German)
31. Ibid., Bl. 65–66, 82–83. (In German)
32. Ibid., Bl. 127. (In German)
33. Ibid., Nr. 239 II, Bl. 2–10. (In German)
34. Ibid., Bl. 88. (In German)
Review
For citations:
Gilyazov I.A. Scholars in the service of war: The censorship of letters by Tatar prisoners of war in Germany during World War I. Tatarica. 2024;23(2):81-93. https://doi.org/10.26907/2311-2042-2024-23-2-81-93
Views:
78
Email this article 