A part of the permanent exhibition at the Sybir Memorial Museum dedicated to repatriations

On 25 March 1957 in Moscow, the governments of the Polish People’s Republic and the USSR signed an agreement on the date and procedure for the repatriation from the Soviet Union of persons of Polish nationality. The agreement was a continuation and completion of the resettlement operation of 1944-1947/48. Its conclusion was possible thanks to the “thaw” that prevailed in the Soviet Union after Stalin’s death. The repatriation agreement provided for the resettlement of all persons who had held Polish citizenship before 17 September 1939, as well as their spouses and children. Possession of citizenship, however, had to be proven. As a result of the agreement, some 250,000 people were transported to Poland. Among them were 22,260 people released from labour camps and places of forced settlement deep inside the USSR. After this so-called second repatriation, thousands of Poles still remained in the former Kresy (Poland’s Eastern Borderlands) and in Sybir, and their  descendants still live there today.