NECROPOLISES OF THE AUSTRRO-HUNGARIAN ARMY IN PRECARPATHIAN DURING WORLD WAR I

Abstract

The purpose of the research is to find out the location, the place and the state of conservation of the burials of the soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian army on the territory of Precarpathian (Ivano-Frankivsk Region) during the period of World War I. The methodology of the research is based on the principles of historicism, systematic and scientific approaches, objectivity, the use of general scientific (analysis, synthesis, generalization) and special-historical (historical-genetic, historical-typological, historical-systematic) methods. The novelty is the classification and the substantive analysis of the military necropolises of the Austro-Hungarian army according to certain groups have been carried out; the changes in their architectonics (quantity, character of the location, etc.) that have taken place over the centuries have been determined; the process of the natural burial of the fallen soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian and other armies in the individual and group burials and in the separate sections of urban, rural, parish cemeteries at the initial stage of the war has been reconstructed; etc. Conclusions. Thus, according to the developed model of the study, the graves at the military cemeteries in the above mentioned territory in 1914 – 1918 and the civilian cemeteries on the grounds of the belonging of the soldiers to the rival armies and the nationality of the soldiers are classified into two main groups: 1) common to the servicemen of the Austro-Hungarian and Russian armies; 2) separate, where the Austro-Hungarian Army soldiers are buried. Among them there were predominant the individual and group burials, scattered on the fields, the private farmsteads, along the roads, and also the separate sections in the urban and rural cemeteries. As a result of the changes (transferring, reburial, a natural and conscious destruction, etc.) that took place over the next decades, at the beginning of the twenty-first century there were almost no graves outside the cemetery, but in different conditions the separate military necropolises were preserved in the urban and rural cemeteries, many of them in a miserable condition.  These necropolises require a special protection from the state. Up to date is the preparation of the generalized fundamental works on the military necropolises of Ukraine on the basis of the results integration of the relevant regional studies.