Wojciech Marciniak: Conducted in four rounds in 1940-1941, the deportations of approximately 320 thousand Polish citizens into the depths of the USSR had features of ethnic cleansing. Through these deportations, the Stalin regime realised its plan of removing Polish people from “Western Ukraine” and “Western Belarussia” and sovietization of these lands. Most of the deportees managed to return to Poland, yet the road to the yearned homeland turned out to be paved with difficulties.
The first chance to leave the “inhuman land” was to join Anders’ Army, which formed in 1941. Still, not everyone managed to reach it before it was evacuated to Iran.
In June 1943, a Union of Polish Patriots was formed in the USSR, and then a new military unit was created: the 1st Tadeusz Kościuszko Infantry Division, led by general Zygmunt Berling. Joining it was another opportunity to leave the “Soviet hell”. The deportees, however, were concerned with the fact that activists from the Union of Polish Patriots were spreading Stalinist propaganda, which was full of lies and distortions. On the other hand, the Union helped the Poles in exile by offering material help and setting up Polish orphanages, schools, an cultural events in Polish.
Read the text in Polish here: https://swiatsybiru.pl/pl/ku-wytesknionej-ojczyznie/
Wojciech Marciniak (PhD) is a historian at The University of Lodz.