Page - 804 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

26. A column of Russian prisoners of war marching to a collection point, 1 July 1917. Prisoners of war were regarded as a visible symbol of military success. Their accommodation in camps containing several thousand men was customary as was their deployment for work and their replacement of some of those men who had departed for the war. Austria-Hungary, Germany and Russia ultimately held huge masses of prisoners of war. There were probably around six million in total.