On December 9, 2025, the War Museum invites you to the lecture “Refugeedom – The Unknown Deportation of Ukrainians,” dedicated to the 110th anniversary of the large-scale forced resettlement of civilians during the First World War.
In the summer and autumn of 1915, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians, Belarusians, and Jews were forced to leave their homes due to military actions—the retreat of the russian imperial army from the western territories of Ukraine and Belarus under pressure from German and Austrian troops. This phenomenon, known as “refugeedom,” significantly influenced the demographic and ethno-cultural map of the region, the consequences of which are still felt today.
The lecture will be delivered by Roman Kabachiy, Head of the First World War Researcher Sector and PhD in History. He will reveal the little-known phenomenon of the mass resettlement of 1915, when hundreds of thousands of residents of the Chełm, Volhynia, and Grodno provinces were forced to leave their homes under the pretext of fleeing “Teutonic barbarism.” The researcher will analyze this forced movement of the population as a manifestation of the “scorched earth” policy, to which russia traditionally returns whenever it wages wars.
Special attention will be paid to the coverage of the “refugeedom” phenomenon by Ukrainian historians, as well as how it was perceived by society in the early 20th century—based on periodicals from the War Museum’s collection. Within the framework of the lecture, fragments of the documentary film “Refugees” (“Biezhantsy”) (Belsat, 2017, dir. Yury Kalina) will also be screened.
Admission is free.
