Wojciech Marciniak
Mass deportations of Polish citizens deep into the USSR was carried out in four rounds in 1940–1941 and had features of ethnic cleansing. Through these deportations, the Stalinist regime implemented its plan to remove the Polish population from ‘Western Ukraine’ and ‘Western Belarus’ and Sovietize these areas. Over 320 thousand citizens of the Second Polish Republic were deprived not only of their homes, but also of their previous life, their sense of security, and the possibility of their children’s education, development and fulfilment of their dreams. What kept many of them alive was the hope that one day they would be able to return to their homeland.
Hope against reality
The deported Poles, as well as Jews and people of other nationalities living in pre-war Poland, left behind their family nests, patrimony, farms, shops, and workplaces, around which their lives had been centred. Crowded in deportation wagons heading to the East, they felt thirst, hunger, and above all regret for what they had left behind and great fear of what awaited them. In modest bundle bags, they carried pieces of the past – small family souvenirs, photos, letters, and various documents. They hoped these items would help them save their lost past from oblivion, and a few years later they also turned out to be tickets back to their homeland.
Dreams of returning home accompanied the exiles from the very beginning of their wandering through Siberia. However, when going into the unknown, it was difficult to resist the belief that they would be separated from Poland forever – from familiar landscapes and friendly people. The hope for repatriation, although having no real basis, persisted among many deportees. As Stefan Krupiński recalled years later: “Although we were always hungry, we hoped that we would survive and return to Poland”. This was the goal of all Sybiraks: to survive and come back.
The only question is how to stay alive in such difficult circumstances and how to think about returning when everything was against it? After all, at the time of deportation, NKVD soldiers shouted at the deportees that they were being deported permanently. This is how Kazimiera Blumicz remembered the terror of those times: “On February 10, 1940, at four a.m., there was a sudden persistent knocking on the entrance door of our cosy new house. ‘Open up!’ – a young baritone shouted in Russian. My father let four Russian soldiers in, and my mother, quivering with fear, lit a kerosene lamp. I went blank that moment – utter limbo. […] All the inhabitants of the village were deported. Forever”.
To the South – to Anders!
Real chances to leave the Soviet Union appeared after the ‘amnesty’ for Polish citizens and the creation of the Polish Army under the command of General Władysław Anders. In 1941, the exodus of exiles from the north and east of the USSR began towards the places where the Polish army was concentrated in Central Asia. The exiles counted not only on recruitment into the army – they wanted to fight for Poland – but also on warmer weather. They were fed up with frosts, but they did not expect that the ‘road to Anders’ would be so difficult. They started their journey far from the railway routes, which had to be reached on foot. This sometimes took months. Then there were rides in overcrowded trains, with frequent long stops at railway stations full of people running away. They were plagued by disease and hunger, and the chaos of war tormented them. All this cost health and life. Some of the youngest exiles got lost along the way – they got out of the wagons at stops to get water or because they simply needed to stretch their legs, and the train moved away without warning. Not everyone managed to catch up with the departing train and stayed in the steppe or in an unknown town along the route. The only signpost at that time was the railway trail leading south.
Not everyone managed to reach the Polish Army before it was evacuated to Iran in the summer of 1942. More than a quarter of a million Polish exiles remained in the USSR, most of whom were victims of Soviet deportations and former Gulag prisoners. After Stalin broke off diplomatic relations with the Polish government in London, these people were deprived of formal representation, and they were treated hostilely by the Soviet authorities after the departure of the Polish armed forces. They were again forced to become USSR citizens, and those who resisted were placed in labour camps or prison. Their long-awaited return to the homeland seemed more distant than ever before. In an entry in the diary he kept while in exile, dated April 13, 1944, Zbigniew Burkacki wrote: “This is already the second spring in Kazakhstan. […] Two years ago we were still in Czarny Klucze in Siberia. Now we have no hope of returning to Poland”.
Union of Polish Patriots – new fears and hopes
Meanwhile, Stalin was starting to implement his own plans for Poland’s post-war future. Based on pro-Soviet political and social activists, the Union of Polish Patriots in the USSR was established in June 1943. It was headed by Wanda Wasilewska, a communist (but before the war she belonged to the Polish Socialist Party) and daughter of Leon Wasilewski, a diplomat and the pre-war minister of foreign affairs. The UPP authorities also included Colonel Zygmunt Berling, a deserter from General Anders’ Army, appointed commander of a new Polish military formation in the USSR: the Polish 1st Tadeusz Kościuszko Infantry Division. While many exiles thought that enlistment in the ‘Kościuszko’ army brought them closer to Poland, the local ‘patriots’ units aroused serious concerns among many of them. First of all, UPP activists spread Stalinist propaganda full of lies and distortions. They maligned the Second Polish Republic, General Władysław Anders, the Polish government in London, and spread the Katyn lie. However, beneath the ideological surface there was happiness in Polish hearts: the UPP set up Polish schools and orphanages, provided material support to deportees, promoted national literature, and hosted cultural events during which Polish patriotic songs and literary works could be heard – all in Polish and with national symbols.
Despite fears that the UPP was a tool of Sovietization, the exiles gradually became convinced (although not all of them) by this new organization, the creation of which, in the words of Zofia Teliga (who organized the structures of the Union in South Kazakhstan), “aroused new hopes”. The mood among Polish citizens deep in the USSR at that moment in history is aptly reflected in a fragment of Janina Michalik’s memoirs: “We were all immersed in deep fear about our future, doomed to destruction after the recent departure of General Anders’ Army, the breaking of relations with the Polish government in London, and the forced passporting. [In 1943] Polish [radio] broadcasts began to reach us from Moscow. Lost in a sinister country, left to our own devices, I remember how eagerly we listened to the Polish voice addressed to us: a voice talking about returning to Poland, understood by us as liberation. We would take a ‘pass to the country’ even from Lucifer’s hands! No one was going to subscribe to the communist assumptions of the Union of Polish Patriots. The most important thing was to stick with the rescue organization”.
July Agreement
Meanwhile, Poland’s political situation was changing. The progress of the Red Army in the fight against the Germans enabled Stalin to gradually implement his plans. In the summer of 1944, the Polish Committee of National Liberation, headed by Edward Osóbka-Morawski, began its activities. It was a quasi-government subordinated to the Kremlin, i.e., the Soviet authorities, which on July 27, 1944 renounced the eastern lands of the Second Polish Republic on behalf of Poland. The consequence of this agreement was the agreements on bilateral population transfers that was concluded between the Polish Committee of National Liberation and the Soviet republics of Belarus, Ukraine, and Lithuania on September 9 and 22, 1944. In practice, the idea was to remove the Polish element from the areas claimed by the Soviets. This was how they planned to complete the ethnic cleansing.
News of resettlements from the Eastern Borderlands of the Second Polish Republic reached deep into the USSR, where the exiles were counting on some signal that would allow them to regain hope of returning to their homeland. However, nothing happened in their case. Only in March 1945 did Zygmunt Modzelewski, the ambassador of the Provisional Government (successor of the Polish Committee of National Liberation) in Moscow, begin talks with the Soviets about a possible repatriation agreement. However, he realized that Stalin would not easily release people he had previously deported as ‘anti-Soviet elements’. Moreover, he expected many procedural problems related to changing citizenship. The vast majority of deportees had Soviet identity documents imposed on them during previous passporting operations. Ultimately, it was the Soviets who presented a solution, which became the basis of the Polish-Soviet repatriation agreement signed in Moscow on July 6, 1945. However, only Poles and Jews – pre-war Polish citizens and their children – could benefit from it. Ukrainians, Belarusians, or Lithuanians (or recognized as such) were excluded from the possibility of traveling to Poland. The Kremlin decided that only the Soviet Union could be their ‘homeland’.
The agreement specified the deadlines for the procedure for changing citizenship from Soviet to Polish and for completing the resettlement operation. The terms of the agreement raised justified doubts because the repatriation was to be completed by December 31, 1945, which was unrealistic due to the difficult weather conditions and the estimated number of people entitled to it. As predicted by the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Moscow and the Association of Polish Patriots, it was necessary to prepare transport for around 250–270 thousand people spread over a huge area.
The repatriation was to be supervised by the Polish-Soviet Mixed Commission on Evacuation Affairs, with its headquarters in Moscow. In the field, it was to be represented by plenipotentiaries of both sides, but the Soviets did not agree to appoint them (autumn, 1945). The Soviets explained that the issue of future repatriates regaining Polish citizenship was an ‘internal matter of the USSR’. This meant that the Kremlin would unilaterally decide who could be a citizen of post-war Poland.
In the autumn of 1945, applications for withdrawal from Soviet citizenship began. However, the exiles had to prove to the Soviet administration that they had been Polish citizens before the war. Officials and militiamen demanded documents from before 1939, such as identity cards, certificates, acts issued by registry offices, etc. The situation was bizarre: the exiles had to prove to their captors that they had been deported from Poland deep into the USSR. Since the vast majority of them did not have the proof of Polishness that was required by the Soviets (their documents had been taken away during passporting or disappeared during the war), the prospects for repatriation were very remote. Some of the deportees stopped believing that they would be able to return to Poland. Some set out on their own to the West and tried to reach the eastern lands of the Second Polish Republic, and from there they reached Poland as part of the resettlement. Such journeys were not only illegal, but also very dangerous.
The Ambassador’s mission
Problems during the citizenship changing procedure caused unrest in Polish communities in the USSR. UPP activists, who were responsible for the day-to-day implementation of the repatriation programme, tried to calm the mood down, but intervention at the political level was necessary. The new Polish ambassador in Moscow, Professor Henry Raab, came with help. He was not a professional diplomat, although he had political experience. He was a zoologist with leftist beliefs (he belonged to the Polish Socialist Party). He began appealing to the Soviet authorities to relax the rules on changing citizenship. During meetings with the Soviets, he explained the need to abandon the restrictive application of the established rules. On November 20, 1945, Raabe received the ‘Additional Protocol’ to the repatriation agreement, backdated to November 11, for his signature. It extended the option period until the end of the year and the departure date until June 15, 1946. Most importantly, the Soviets also agreed to take into account unofficial evidence of Polishness and witness testimony. Hopes of returning to the homeland became real.
The last winter in Siberia
In the fall and winter of 1945, the second round of the procedure for changing citizenship took place in the concentrations of Polish exiles deep in the USSR. Eligible exiles therefore did everything to obtain permission to leave and become Polish citizens again (according to the Soviet authorities’ decision, this would happen upon entry to Poland). They were assisted in this by UPP activists, who played a significant role during the campaign. In practice, in many places it was these activists who accepted applications and documents and interpreted them to the benefit of their compatriots. In the name of help, they also fabricated evidence of Polishness in order to enable repatriation for those who did not have any documents. They were advocates for the interests of exiles before Soviet officials. Sometimes seemingly insignificant items and documents, such as photos, letters, tram tickets or veterinary certificates, were of decisive importance. Anything that could confirm their owner’s connections with Poland was priceless.
Meanwhile, preparations for the departure were underway. The Joint Commission, in consultation with the State Repatriation Office in Poland, agreed to the travel schedule. The repatriation of the Polish population from deep within the USSR was to start at the beginning of February 1946 and last until June. Most of the trains from the most remote regions of the USSR were planned to depart in the spring. UPP activists faced enormous challenges related to getting supplies to those leaving and the logistics of this large operation.
Provisioning and re-education
The main task related to preparing for the trip was gathering food supplies. The exiles collected biscuits and all provisions for the journey on their own. UPP activists also distributed canned food from Soviet quotas and gifts from the Polish government, and they applied to local institutions for additional allocations. Support was provided by various self-help campaigns and artistic events organized by the UPP, the proceeds of which were allocated to the most needy repatriates. Not only food was distributed, but also clothing, unfortunately usually of very low quality.
This support for the deportees did not significantly improve their tragic financial situation. The scale of poverty of the deportees was enormous. Many of them lived in extreme poverty and saw emigration to Poland as their only salvation. Nevertheless, the aid initiatives of repatriation organizers should be appreciated as attempts to improve the fate of our compatriots in the East. They were also a signal to the exiles that, despite their limited opportunities, someone was trying to support them and remember them. This certainly comforted them in the last months of their stay in the USSR.
An important part of preparations for the mass departure was the mandatory vaccination of repatriates against infectious diseases, mainly diphtheria, typhoid fever, dysentery, smallpox, and measles. The serums were provided (not always free of charge) by local medical institutions and were administered by staff qualified at UPP medical courses. It is worth emphasizing that the Union of Polish Patriots, together with the Soviet Red Cross and Red Crescent institutions, organized training for nurses who would supervise the health of repatriates on their way to Poland. First-aid kits and equipment for sanitary wagons were also collected. In addition, those exiles who had medical education were recruited to help.
Attempts to re-educate the exiles were an ongoing element of preparations for repatriation. UPP activists called rallies and meetings of the Polish population, during which lectures on political issues and talks were given. A permanent element of their program was ‘Polish-Soviet friendship’. The idea for future returnees was to be loyal citizens of the People’s Republic of Poland and to remain grateful for the ‘hospitality’ they had supposedly experienced in the Soviet Union. “Only now did I understand the reason for postponing the repatriation. Poland was ready to accept us, but we were not ‘prepared’ to live in a new homeland”, Maria Łęczycka wrote years later.
These initiatives were, of course, doomed to failure. Intrusive propaganda could not erase the harm that the Sybiraks had suffered since the beginning of the Soviet occupation of Polish lands. However, in the Stalinist state, it was fear that dictated the rules of conduct. Therefore, out of fear for their lives and safety, the exiles participated in these propaganda events. On the other side of the podium stood UPP activists – most of them also exiles (about 100 people had UPP cards in 1945). It is difficult to assess to what extent their zeal in spreading the Stalinist propaganda described in archival documents was real, and to what extent they were creating reality for the purposes of NKVD control. Life in the USSR was characterized not only by hunger, but also by fear and omnipresent lies.
Tickets to Poland
A tangible sign of the upcoming repatriation was the issuing of certificates by the Polish-Soviet Mixed Commission on Evacuation Affairs to the exiles. Without these, no one could cross the border. It was, therefore, a real ‘ticket to Poland’. Of course, this didn’t happen without problems: the commission did not want to issue this document for some exiles, while for others local authorities or directors of workplaces made it difficult to collect. Exiles were discouraged from leaving or even threatened that trying to leave the USSR would result in imprisonment. Nevertheless, dreams of returning to their hometowns – although in most cases unfortunately not to their homelands – gave our compatriots courage and made them push for repatriation with all their strength.
Meanwhile, UPP activists, together with the railway authorities, were developing displacement schedules from individual areas and preparing routes to boarding stations and assembly points. Preparing mass repatriation was a great logistical challenge.
For the vast majority of Polish exiles, the road to the Motherland usually began far from the railway lines – deep in the steppe, on the outskirts of collective farm estates or factory and mine settlements. They travelled to the boarding stations by trucks and horse-drawn carriages, or even on foot. They drove or walked, hoping to catch the train to Poland, but also full of fear of whether Stalin would change his mind and keep them forever in the ‘hospitable Soviet land’ (as the propaganda slogans said), where they had they lost their loved ones and suffered so much suffering, hunger, fear, and humiliation. They were bid farewell by local neighbours, to whom many of our compatriots had grown accustomed during their years spent in exile.
Road to new homes
Before the trains departed, the UPP organized farewell rallies, most of which were staged displays of Stalinist propaganda. Representatives of the repatriates had to thank the Soviet authorities for their ‘support and care’ during the war. There was no talk about the real reasons for the presence of Polish citizens deep inside the USSR. The historical truth was replaced with lies that the deportees were in fact war refugees who had found shelter in the USSR from the approaching German army.
The journey to Poland was in freight wagons, but the passengers were no longer guarded by armed guards; there were no bars on the windows and the doors were not locked. The returnees were filled with the joy of returning to their country, but also with grief for their lost homelands, loved ones who had died in exile, and their weakened health. The harm they suffered at the hands of the Soviets left its mark on them forever.
Traveling conditions were difficult, but despite quite modest supplies there was usually no shortage of food. Crossing the former border with Poland, the passengers of the repatriation trains said goodbye to the Borderlands – for many of them their hometowns, which they would never get to see again. They also observed the destruction of war, which was terrifying. It happened that a train with repatriates stopped next to a train with Poles being deported to the East as part of the next wave of Soviet repression. The deportations of our compatriots to Siberia, both from central Poland and the eastern lands of the Second Polish Republic, continued after the war.
After a journey lasting several weeks, the transports crossed the borders of Poland through one of the three main entry points in Brześć, Medyka, or Jagodzi. On Polish soil, the Sybiraks manifested their joy by dancing spontaneously and singing religious and patriotic songs. They were overcome with emotion and fell into each other’s arms. They did not know yet that in post-war Poland they would have to endure many humiliations and overcome significant difficulties. They received help from the State Repatriation Office at staging points and shelters, which were usually the first Polish institutions they came into contact with after crossing the border. A new, difficult chapter of life in the People’s Republic of Poland was beginning for the Sybiraks.
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As part of the mass repatriation, organized on the basis of the agreement of July 6, 1945, in the spring and summer of 1946 approximately 250,000 Polish citizens returned from the depths of the USSR. This was the majority of those entitled to leave. In the following years, however, the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Moscow revealed concentrations of Polish people who had been denied the right to leave. In addition, further categories of people were deported after the war. Attempts by Polish diplomats to intervene in their affairs were usually ignored by the Soviets. Moreover, they forced Warsaw (finally successfully) to stop complaining about Poles held under guard in the East. With the advent of the Stalinist era, interventions and activities for Polish citizens in the USSR ceased. The official narrative of the authorities in Warsaw even denied their existence.
The text in Polish is here: https://swiatsybiru.pl/pl/ku-wytesknionej-ojczyznie/
Wojciech Marciniak (PhD) is a historian at The University of Lodz.
Translated by Agnieszka Glińska