Poles in Siberia in the Soviet reality of the 1920s and 1930s
Sergiusz Leonczyk: After the end of the Polish-Bolshevik War, on 18 March 1921, a peace treaty between Poland, Russia and Ukraine was signed in Riga. Among the provisions of this treaty were points concerning the repatriation of the Polish population from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus to independent Poland. This repatriation officially lasted from 1921 to June 1924, but the last repatriates arrived in Poland as late as 1925. Unfortunately, not everyone was able to exercise their right to repatriation to their historical homeland.
In Thought, in Word, on Screen: Iranian Interest in the Fate of Polish Refugees
Ivonna Nowicka The fate of Polish Sybiraks has inspired a remarkable range of cultural works in Iran: documentary films, a stage play, a feature film, and even a television series viewed by millions. From where did the profound level of interest in this subject...
In memory of the wandering exiles of the Borderland. On the eightieth anniversary of the Repatriation Agreement
Wojciech Marciniak: Eighty years on from the end of the Second World War we ought to sustain the remembrance processes for our compatriots who arrived from the USSR as well as for those who aided them in enduring until the final chapter of their exiled-wanderings, also supporting them when resettling again in Poland.
Polish Siberiada: Geography, Myths, and Meaning
Karina Gaibulina: Although Poles did not initiate the colonial conquest of Siberia, the Caucasus or Central Asia, they nevertheless participated in the process of subjugating other nations and states.
Twenty Years of Penal Labor for Escape
Jerzy Rohoziński: On the night of 18 April 1952, the Soviet authorities deported more than five thousand ethnic Poles from the Byelorussian SSR to southern Kazakhstan, condemning them to forced labor on the cotton fields of the Pakhta-Aral state farm.
Nobility of the Spirit – Julian Glaubicz Sabiński in Exile
Małgorzata Król: This honest and uncompromising prisoner — though it may sound like a paradox — strove to remain free even in the yolk of captivity.
Subjugation of Communist Poland – first stage (July – December 1944)
Dariusz Węgrzyn: The Soviets’ crossing of the so-called Curzon Line marked a significant change in their repressive policy. Officially, on 22 July 1944, the Polish Committee of National Liberation, led by communists, was established. In accordance with Stalin’s wishes, a border treaty was signed in Moscow on 27 July, but the new authorities in Poland did not want to disclose this document to the public.
Poland, British Polonia and Bradford
Tim Smith: In the aftermath of the WWII over 160,000 Polish people displaced by the conflict made the difficult decision not to return to Poland and to live in Britain. Many of them were Sybiraks
Contesting Power in Women Gulag Memoirs: Larysa Heniush and Evgenia Ginzburg on Survival and Resistance
Tatsiana Astrouskaya: Why one story – Ginzburg’s – is widely remembered and celebrated, while the other – Heniush’s – remained nearly unknown for decades? Many individuals who had once supported or even helped construct the Soviet repressive system, but later suffered under it, have been recognized as its most prominent opponents. Meanwhile, many of others who consistently rejected the system and never participated in it have been largely forgotten.