Maria Pietrzak (née Kuprjanowicz) with her son Janusz; a Zagot Skot, Pavlodar Oblast, Kazakhstan, 1945. Sybir Memorial Museum collection

In April 1940, Maria Pietrzak (née Kuprjanowicz) together with her sons, Eugeniusz and Janusz, were deported from Bialystok to the Pavlodar Oblast in the then-territory of Soviet Kazakhstan. Jan – the father of the family – was a policeman. During the war, he escaped from an internment camp in Lithuania and joined the Home Army (AK). He died in the Warsaw Uprising. In 1941, after the Soviets announced an amnesty for deported Poles, Gienek joined General Anders’ Army. In 1943, he was sent to England for training as an airborne radio operator. In January 1945, he was promoted to corporal and assigned to the 300th Bomb Squadron of the Mazovian Land. His mother and brother Janusz remained in the USSR.
On the back of this photograph Maria wrote: “The year 1945 posiewnaya (spring). Gienek! This photo is taken in the pasture in Zagot-Skot. Me with Januszek and with my belongings. The cow marked (x) is the one which was traded for the calf we bought when you were still with us”.