Lienz: Traditional Cossack Shoe Exhibition at the House of Austrian History

This exhibition piece explores the tragic history of Cossack soldiers and their families who were located in Lienz, Austria, at the end of World War II. Through the lens of a single traditional Cossack shoe, the display examines the forced repatriation to the Soviet Union and the subsequent persecution faced by those displaced.

This digital exhibition item focuses on the historical events of late April 1945 in Lienz, where approximately 25,000 Cossack soldiers and their families were stranded after fighting in Italy and Yugoslavia. The display centers on a traditional Cossack shoe that was gifted to a local family after the 'Tragedy of the Drava,' a period marked by the brutal deportation of these individuals by British forces under the agreement to return Soviet citizens. The artifact serves as a poignant reminder of the human cost of the conflict and the eventual fate of the displaced, many of whom faced severe persecution or death within the Stalinist labor camp system. This piece, later donated to the Ferdinandeum museum, provides a localized perspective on the broader, traumatic conclusion of the Second World War as part of the digital initiative 'Eleven New Perspectives on 1945'.