Repatriation of Hungarian Soldiers from Siberia via Vladivostok

[Laurent Rejto]

Does anybody know the shipping route that was taken to repatriate Hungarian POWs from Siberia via Vladivostok, circa 1920-22?
 

I thought I read somewhere that since the Siberian Railroad going west was unavailable due to White Russian and Czech Legion military action, so ships left Vladivostok via the Philippines, then Ceylon, then through the Suez Canal with a final destination of Trieste.
 

My grandfather was repatriated from Vladivostok but he never wrote any of this down in his 95 page WWI journal. His last entry was made in May of 1919 from the prison camp in Stretensk.

[MaureenE]

Looking at maps which were produced for other reasons, the above route quoted does look quite likely.

https://blogs.shu.edu/thediplomaticenvoy/files/2016/03/South-China-Sea.png

https://flickr.com/photos/136041510@N05/29078797066/in/photolist-LiArh7-xtBnZH-2VE8pk-3VZipC-4s2Jup-2VJvHC-5UMfeG-jLypCd-BeCbzD-eqNrjc-UKkXrQ-9Joijz-64h8yo-6pLdUZ-PpHF5R-cY7ghE-4r3owu-4qYid6-nP8iJ5-nP8bN1-c9rLrY-bqybA2-6FBpRQ-4s6KUE-njb9Qt-ecCc5D-cEXxqW-dWv41h-odu8eq-oycVMn-wwgYph-jkwebs-owkx2Z-odb59y-MmNmYe-4s6KZf-odcHWc-CBNs1h-oeRuQx-fuyrmE-ougxHG-BNAmZ-491s4Q-ovqZxF-asxPW3-gDpPsR-FnxXEb-ubfmzm-rmNLXi-81x35H

Maureen

 

[MaureenE]

Perhaps it would have been more accurate to say that looking at the maps, the above route quoted looks like one of the possibilities. It seems to me that after the "Straits of Malacca" the route must be  fairly standard. However, to get to the Straits of Malacca, there must be a few different possibilities, eg instead of going to the Phillipines, perhaps some ships went to Singapore, or other places.

In the days of sail, the routes definitely varied during a year according to the prevailing winds/general weather.  I have no idea how this affected routes c 1920, but as a layman without specific knowledge, I would image that the weather could still lead to changes in routes.

(Nothing directly to do with the current query, but see the 1782 publication A Treatise on the Monsoons in East India by  Capt. Thomas Forrest https://archive.org/details/monsoons-east-india/page/n1/mode/2up  and Wreck and loss of the ship Fanny, Capt. Robertson, on her passage from Bombay to China, November 29, 1803, including particulars of the tremendous hurricanes called typhons, and the wonderful preservation of the greater part of the crew…;https://archive.org/details/wreck-ship-fanny)

Maureen

[Laurent Rejto]

Thank you. I'm still searching for a database that may have specific info (and even names) but seems unlikely. It does make sense that Trieste was the destination since it was part of Austria-Hungary, although that changed after 1918.

[KizmeRD]

On 12/05/2023 at 14:20, Laurent Rejto said:

Does anybody know the shipping route that was taken to repatriate Hungarian POWs from Siberia via Vladivostok, circa 1920-22?

Most POW’s in the western part of Russia had (by various means) managed to return home by November 1918. Then following the conclusion the Civil War in 1920, the trans-Siberian railroad became available to repatriate remaining PoW’s from various camps in eastern Russia/Siberia/central Asia - with Red Cross Societies and the League of Nations (Refugees Commissioner) playing a major role in assisting the return of prisoners home (including the repatriation of approximately 118,000 former Austro-Hungarians). The final group of 6,850 POWs were repatriated via Vladivostok in 1922.

The principal shipping route (as might be expected) was to sail down the South China Sea, through the Malacca Straits across the Indian Ocean and into the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal, however it would also have been possible to sail back across the Pacific, over to Vancouver, down through the Panama Canal and across the Atlantic to Europe.

MB

[Laurent Rejto]

Thanks. Still hoping to somehow find a list of those 6,850 POWs. 

The seizure of the Trans-Siberian railroad by the Czech Legion in May 1918 blocked off Siberia from Europe and halted the official repatriation of POWs until 1920. From https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/prisoners_of_war_russian_empire

 

[KizmeRD]

Have you come across the following link to University of Geneva League of Nations Archive?

https://archives.ungeneva.org/hungarian-prisoners-of-war-in-russia

MB

 

[Laurent Rejto]

Yes. I've been downloading one item at a time. Fascinating, but very slow going. Hopefully will come across something that lists prisoner names. Thanks