Tatiana Committee

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The Tatyana Committee (Russian: Tat'janinskij Komitet ; full name: Komitet Eë Imperatorskogo Vysočestva Velikoj knjažny Tat'jany Nikolaevny dlja okazanija vremennoj pomošči postradavšim ot voennych bedstvij , "Committee for Her Imperial Highness Nikolayev for the temporary support of the Grand Duchess of the War") , named after its honorary chairwoman, the Russian Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolajewna Romanowa (1897–1918), was the largest Russian aid organization for war refugees and victims of war during the First World War .

History and organizational structure

After the first refugee trek from the Russian western territories poured into the interior as a result of the German offensives in autumn 1914 , Tsar Nicholas II (r. 1894–1918) signed regulations on September 14, 1914 to support war refugees by means of a specially designed one created organizational platform. The chairmanship of the committee created for this purpose was taken over by the Tsar's second daughter, Grand Duchess Tatiana, after whom the committee was named. The Reichsrat member Alexej B. Nejdgardt (also: Neudgard ) was appointed managing director . Other members were the Russian foreign, finance, war and transport ministers as well as leading representatives of the economy and national minorities. As a result of this broad anchoring in leading social circles, the committee had a wide network of local branches at the level of the governorates , districts and districts. In order to anchor the committee more firmly in the public consciousness, a separate magazine was also published.

In the first few months of its activity, the committee was financed exclusively by public donations, but these were soon no longer sufficient. After the military setbacks of the Russian army in 1915, which finally led to the so-called Great Withdrawal and a huge increase in the flow of refugees, which as of January 1, 1916 amounted to around 3.3 million people, the committee was only able to work through massive government grants maintain. By the end of 1915, these amounted to more than 15 million rubles .

The committee continued its work after the tsar was overthrown in the course of the February Revolution in 1917 , but was renamed the “All-Russian Committee for the Support of War Victims” and from then on subordinated to the so-called “Special Advice for Refugees” within the Russian Interior Ministry. Grand Duchess Tatiana had been expelled from the committee as a result of these changes.

tasks

The main activity of the committee consisted of one-off aid for war victims. For example, the committee helped to find housing and jobs, if possible when they returned to their home areas, organized school lessons for refugee children, gave support in claims for damages and in the search for missing family members. To this end, the committee worked very closely with the various nationally established refugee organizations within the Russian Empire . In this way, a considerable contribution to alleviating the plight of the war refugees could be made by the end of the tsarist regime.

literature

  • Dmytro Myeshkov: Tatiana Committee . In: Detlef Brandes , Holm Sundhaussen and Stefan Troebst (eds.): Lexicon of expulsions. Deportation, Forced Relocation, and Ethnic Cleansing in 20th Century Europe. Böhlau Verlag, Vienna-Cologne-Weimar 2010, ISBN 978-3-205-78407-4 , pp. 637f.

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