Проблема беженцев в Беларуси в годы Первой мировой войны

Abstract

The article describes the events of World War I when the military action of the German army brought on its successful offensive at the eastern front. The German occupation of the western provinces of the Russian Empire caused massive displacement of local population. The Russian government issued the decree about forced evacuation of the population from the territories under the threat of seizure. The author studies the historical aspect of formation and development of state approaches to the organization of refugee movement and rendering assistance to people who had suffered from military actions in the western provinces of the Russian Empire. Among the reasons of the article topicality the author singles out the amount of refugees, the consequences of possible epidemics in the armies and other factors of social tension threatening the Russian troops. The author studies the activities of the Front Commissioners for Migrants and also the adoption of the law meeting the migrants' needs as the elements of the state policy in this sphere. The definition of the migrant status, establishment of a special meeting on the migrants' settlement and developing the guidelines for the migrants' settlement are singled out as the prerequisites for formation of state and legal regulation in the sphere of rendering assistance to migrants.