"Negotiating Resettlement": some Concluding Thoughts

In this article, I take the opportunity to discuss some recent work on the history of population displacement, including the valuable work represented in this HSR Special Issue, with a particular focus on the situation of displaced persons and refugees in Europe in the aftermath of the Second World War. Here, I concentrate on the interaction of multiple actors in the post-war international refugee regime and then turn to some specific issues in relation to the confidential case files of the UNHCR compiled between 1951 and 1975. This allows me a few final reflections on the extent to which digital methods can support research and dissemination as well as the wealth of material at the disposal of any historian who wishes to study the mainsprings of mass population displacement, the management practices and policies of the state, the dynamics of the international refugee regime, the role of activists and relief workers, and not least the responses of refugees who navigated the dangerous waters of displacement, who were caught up in the myriad processes of categorisation, and who encountered officials who had the power to determine their prospects

Involvement of deprivation and environmental lead in neural tube defects:a matched case-control study.

OBJECTIVE. To analyse the prevalence of neural tube defects in small geographical areas and seek to explain any spatial variations with reference to environmental lead and deprivation. SETTING. The Fylde of Lancashire in the north west of England. DESIGNCases were ascertained as part of a prospective survey of major congenital malformations in babies born in the Fylde to residents there between 1957 and 1981. A matched case-control analysis used infants with cardiovascular system, alimentary tract, and urinary system malformations as controls. Conditional logistic regression was used to assess the effects of more than 10 µg/l lead in drinking water and the Townsend deprivation score. RESULTS. The prevalence of neural tube defects in 1957-73 was higher in Blackpool, Fleetwood, and North Fylde, whereas the three control groups showed no significant spatial variation. In 1957-81 mothers living in electoral wards with either a higher proportion of houses with more than 10 µg/l lead in the water or a higher deprivation score had a greater risk of having a baby with a neural tube defect. For spina bifida and cranium bifidum alone, this was also true. For anencephaly, deprivation was less important although the effect of lead was still seen. In some neural tube defects, lead may act independently of other possible factors associated with deprivation. It seemed unlikely that lead levels changed significantly during the survey. The percentage of houses with 10 µg/l or more of lead in the water in 1984-5 was similar to that found in Great Britain 10 years previously. CONCLUSION. There is evidence to suggest that lead is one cause of neural tube defects, especially anencephaly. This could link the known preventive actions of hard water and folic acid. Calcium is a toxicological antagonist of lead. One cause of a deficiency of folic acid is impaired absorption secondary to zinc deficiency, which may be produced or exacerbated by lead

War, Refugeedom, Revolution

This article examines the refugee crisis in Russia in the era of war and revolution. It considers the historiography and the reasons for historiographical neglect; and asks questions about its political, social and cultural significance. The refugee crisis posed fundamental questions about the scope, purpose and outcomes of attempts to manage people who were on the move on an unprecedented scale and in an unforeseen manner. The article also asks to what extent refugees were able to express themselves, whether to lament the circumstances leading to their displacement, to criticise the arrangements made on their behalf, or to articulate a sense of their future. The first part of the article discusses some of the extant source material, including anglophone accounts. It goes on to consider the politics and practice of relief work, including by semi‑official bodies such as the Tatiana Committee, by public organisations (notably Zemgor), and by new national committees that claimed the refugee on behalf of the “nation.” Attention is also devoted to the ramifications of population displacement in 1917 and beyond, including the repatriation of refugees. The final section addresses directly the issue of personal testimony, and who claimed the right to speak on behalf of the refugee.L’auteur étudie la crise des réfugiés en Russie pendant la Première Guerre mondiale et la révolution. Il examine l’historiographie, les raisons des lacunes de celle‑ci et s’interroge sur l’importance politique, sociale et culturelle de cette crise. La crise des réfugiés a soulevé des questions fondamentales sur la portée, le propos et les résultats des tentatives de prise en charge des personnes déplacées, et ce, sur une échelle sans précédent et de façon imprévisible. L’article cherche aussi à comprendre dans quelle mesure les réfugiés étaient capables de s’exprimer, soit pour déplorer les circonstances qui les avaient conduits à se déplacer, soit pour critiquer les dispositions prises à leur égard, soit encore pour formuler leur perception de l’avenir. Dans sa première partie, l’article traite certaines des sources existantes, y compris les témoignages en anglais. Il examine ensuite les politiques et les pratiques du travail humanitaire, notamment celles d’organismes semi‑officiels comme le Comité Tatiana, d’organismes publics comme le Zemgor, et de nouveaux comités nationaux qui revendiquaient les réfugiés au nom de la « nation ». L’article s’attache également aux conséquences des déplacements de population en 1917 et au‑delà, ainsi qu’au rapatriement des réfugiés. La dernière partie examine directement la question du témoignage personnel et donc celle de ceux qui s’arrogeaient le droit de parler au nom des réfugiés

Refugee history and refugees in Russia during and after the First World War

This article analyses the causes and consequences of mass population displacement in the Russian Empire during the First World War and its immediate aftermath. The wartime refugee crisis in Russia must be understood in broader conceptual and historiographical terms, to which the first part of the article is devoted. There follows a discussion of the origins, scale and impact of the movement of civilians from Russia’s western borderlands to the Russian interior, as it was understood by contemporaries and as it has been reflected in the historiography. The article also considers the political implications of the refugee crisis as manifested by the formation of governmental and non-governmental organisations. One particularly significant development was the emergence of national committees whose activities on behalf of ethnic minority refugees including Poles, Latvians, Jews and others, drew attention to ideas of ‘national’ suffering and persecution under the Tsarist regime. The final part of the article looks at the aftermath of the First World War, including the impact of the October Revolution and Civil War, and the formation of the first international refugee regime under the auspices of the League of Nations. The conclusion recapitulates the main points, emphasising the creation during the war of the category of the refugee as an object both of bureaucratic and humanitarian concern. Refs 75

Eric Lohr, Nationalizing the Russian Empire

Domestic campaigns for the hearts and minds of the population took place in all belligerent states during World War I. An important element of this process was the dissemination of images of friend and foe. Tsarist Russia shared in this tendency. To be sure, not all enemies were immediately and irrevocably demonised, but the strains of war increasingly produced an insidious current of hatred. Accompanying the formal patriotic fervour was a more insidious undercurrent of persecution that exten..

Drugs

Throughout history, intoxicants were an important part of the war experience. The First World War was by no means an exception in that respect: its main "war drugs" were alcohol (mostly beer, brandy, rum, schnapps, wine, and vodka), morphine, and cocaine. These were both "prescribed" by military authorities and "self-prescribed" by soldiers. As in the past, the reasons for using drugs varied: from purely medical (killing the pain, anesthetizing, and energizing) to performance enhancement, from raising the fighting spirit to alleviating combat trauma, from strengthening bonds between companions to mitigating the fear of battle. Simultaneously and paradoxically, in many states temperance ideas gained in popularity and prohibitionist regulations were adopted

Beyond national narratives? : centenary histories, the First World War and the Armenian Genocide

In April 2015 the centenary of the Armenian Genocide was commemorated. Just like the First World War centenary, this anniversary has provoked a flurry of academic and public interest in what remains a highly contested history. This article assesses the state of the current historiography on the fate of the Ottoman Armenians. It focuses on the possibilities for moving beyond the national narratives which continue to dominate the field, in particular through connecting the case of the Armenian Genocide to what has been termed a ‘transnational turn’ in the writing of the history of the First World War