By Evgeny Glebov Prisoners of war are usually treated according to rank. Officers get better treatment. They can be used as camp supervisors. They can refuse to work at all. But other ranks often end up doing heavy, and sometimes meaningless jobs, poorly fed and treated quite cruelly. The Nazis and the Japanese militarists even carried out hideous experiments on them. POWs have, however, long been treated differently in Russia. In the 18th century Peter the Great set new standards. The Czar understood that they would have to be sent home when war ended . On his orders prisoners were well kept and paid the going rate for their work. Many retained fond memories of their days in captivity. It was the same in Soviet times. For example, there was a separate Main Directorate for Internees and Prisoners of War within the interior ministry (the NKVD) the GUIVP, and not the Gulag. The food standards in the GUIVP were higher than in the Gulag, set at the level of the norms for Soviet worke...