Milana Sribniak

Milana Sribniak is a Ph.D. student in History at the World History Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Her dissertation project concerns the repatriation of Ukrainian prisoners of war from Germany and Austria between 1918 and 1920. She has conducted research on her Ph.D. topic at several acclaimed academic institutions: as a junior visiting fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, Austria (“Ukraine in European Dialogue” program); as a scholarship recipient at the German Historical Institute in Warsaw (“Stipendienprogramm des DHI Warschau”); as a Studium Europy Wschodniej scholarship recipient (research stay at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Poland); as a DAAD scholarship recipient for a one-month archival research in Germany. Milana Sribniak has published articles in Ukrainian, English, and Polish in journals, such as Acta Universitatis Lodziensis. Folia Historica, Studia z Dziejów Historiografii Wojskowej, Facta Simonidis, European Historical Studies, Eminak.

Milana Sribniak’s research concentrates on the repatriation, diplomatic efforts, evacuation paths, and humanitarian support provided to Ukrainian POWs of the Imperial Russian Army detained in Germany and Austria between 1918 and 1920, facilitated by Ukrainian military and sanitary missions, embassies, and both International and Ukrainian Red Cross societies, as well as the treaties and decrees that determined Ukrainian POW repatriation. Her project also investigates the context of swift geopolitical shifts, changing borders, and political regime transformations between 1918 and 1920, which significantly influenced and restricted the full-scale repatriation of Ukrainian POWs. Sribniak further examines the obstacles encountered by Ukrainian military and sanitary missions in the logistics and transportation of Ukrainian POWs. The research illuminates the collective portrait of Ukrainian POWs detained in Germany and Austria, including their worldviews and patriotism, cultivated by Ukrainian organizations. Special attention is given to the efforts of Bolshevik and White Movement propaganda among Ukrainian POWs in German and Austrian camps and its impact, alongside the harsh conditions of imprisonment and the despair over delayed repatriation.