Tatiana Committee

The Committee of Her Imperial Highness the Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna for the Temporary Relief of Victims of War (Russian: Комитет Ее Императорского Величества Великой княжны Татьяны Николаевны для оказания временной помощи пострадавшим от военных бедствий), commonly known simply as the Tatiana Committee (Russian: Татьянинский комитет), was a war refugee relief organization during World War I in the Russian Empire. It ceased activities after the February Revolution, but was continued by the Soviet government under a different name. It was one of few Imperial committees that was continued after the Revolution.

It was established on 14 September 1914 by an imperial decree and was named after Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna, the 17-year-old daughter of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.[1] The committee included 28[2] dignitaries from the Imperial Court and the State Council and was chaired by state councilor Aleksei Neidhardt.[3] Tatiana Nikolaevna was not just a patron of the committee, but also a participant – she attended meetings and dealt with paperwork.[4] The committee was initially funded by 900,000 rubles from Tsar's personal funds.[5] It received further funding from the state[3] and also raised money from donations, charity balls, raffles, auctions,[2] and other fundraising initiatives such as selling postcards with Tatiana's image.[4] By January 1, 1917, the committee distributed more than 2.4 million rubles. About a quarter of the amount was distributed directly to the refugees as money, food, and goods.[2]

Initially, it focused on helping war widows and soldiers' children, but switched to war refugees by summer 1915[3] providing them with food, clothes, and shelter.[1] New arriving refugees were met at railway stations, registered, given food stamps and temporary shelter for 5–10 days, and then dispersed in the provincial towns and villages.[2] Its other activities included reuniting separated families, establishing orphanages, schools, and hospitals, providing aid to non-refugees who had nevertheless suffered from the war, and providing grants to other local war aid organizations.[3] For example, the committee provided a 400,000-ruble grant to the Warsaw Citizens' Committee (later reorganized into the Central Welfare Council)[6] and a 9,500-ruble monthly grant to the Lithuanian Society for the Relief of War Sufferers.[7] The Tatiana Committee established its own numerous local branches: 66 at the provincial level and 220 at the uyezd and volost level by October 1915.[1]

In its mission, the committee competed with the All-Russian Union of Towns (VSG) and the All-Russian Zemstvo Union (VZS).[3] While they shared the same humanitarian goals, there were political tensions between the organizations, particularly when it came to registering refugees and gathering national statistics. The VSG and VZS, based on local self-government institutions of city duma and zemstvo, were well suited for this task, but the central government did not trust them and delegated the task to the Tatiana Committee.[3] By spring 1916, it counted more than 3.3 million refugees.[8]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Stockdale, Melissa Kirschke (2016). Mobilizing the Russian Nation: Patriotism and Citizenship in the First World War. Cambridge University Press. pp. 110–111. ISBN 9781107093867.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Kerzum, Andrei P. "Комитет Е.И.В. вел. кнж. Татианы Николаевны по оказанию временной помощи пострадавшим от военных действий (Татьянинский комитет)". Энциклопедия благотворительности: Санкт-Петербург (in Russian). Фонд имени Д. С. Лихачева. Retrieved 2017-05-15.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Gatrell, Peter (2005). A Whole Empire Walking: Refugees in Russia during World War I. Indiana University Press. pp. 41–42. ISBN 978-0253213464.
  4. 1 2 Rappaport, Helen (2014). The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra. St. Martin's Press. pp. 235, 256. ISBN 9781250020215.
  5. ↑ Yčas, Martynas (2009). Iš Agaro krašto: 1885–1941 (PDF) (in Lithuanian). Kaunas: Candela. p. 145. ISBN 978-9986-400-21-9.
  6. ↑ Blobaum, Robert (2017). A Minor Apocalypse: Warsaw during the First World War. Cornell University Press. p. 129. ISBN 9781501707872.
  7. ↑ Sperskienė, Rasa (2014). "Tatjanos komitetas". Lietuvos visuomenė Pirmojo pasaulinio karo pradžioje: įvykiai, draugijos, asmenybės (in Lithuanian). Lietuvos mokslų akademijos Vrublevskių biblioteka. Retrieved 2017-05-15.
  8. ↑ Hagen, Mark von (2000). "War and Transformation of Loyalties and Identities in the Russian Empire, 1914-1918". In Pons, Silvio; Romano, Andrea. Russia in the age of wars 1914-1945. Annali della Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli. Milano: Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli. p. 18. ISBN 8807990555.
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