City at War: Kyiv and Kyivans in World War I

Abstract

The paper describes the life of Kyiv during the First World War — when a city behind the frontlines, a center of civil administration, acquired a new role as the hub for the war effort in Southwestern Land. Societal shifts such as population surge and appearance of military personnel, refugees, deserters, prisoners of war, and soldiers’ widows are discussed. Due to the intensification of hostilities, Kyiv began to house numerous military hospitals. The reasons for the evacuation of certain establishments — especially the university, colleges and secondary schools — in 1915 are addressed. It is noted how the war effort made leading factories to convert their production to military purposes, while the rest, running at a loss, were forced to close. The war affected the urban development, destroyed established patterns, ruined the city’s economy. The quality of life of most Kyivans decreased. At the same time the war tested Kyivans’ survival skills and their willingness to help vulnerable groups. People didn’t just rely on the state, but pooled their resources to support their compatriots. Ethnic solidarity meant much to the Kyivan Poles when they assisted evacuees from Congress Poland. The Kyivan Jewish community and that of Ukrainian intelligentsia also did their best to provide comfort to refugees (in the latter case — especially from the Austrian Galicia). During the wartime a new kind of citizen emerged — that with a social survival strategy, a distrust of the Russian empire and the enemy image it peddled. The protracted warfare and the decline in living standards it caused induced some Kyivans to disregard the social norms. The war made Ukrainians and Kyivans in particular more open to the coming political shifts, more ready to fight for their own identity and independence.