Helena Krycka was deported by the Soviets in September 1946 to the Komi ASRS from Friedland in Prussia, where the Germans had sent her for collaborating with the Home Army. As an ‘enemy of the people’, a Soviet court sentenced her to 10 years in gulags with neither the right to return to her country nor to receive letters. She worked in the labour camps Kniazhpogost, Kotlas, Mezhog, Inta, and Lemju. In March 1955, after completing her sentence, she was sent to Inta in the Soviet Republic of Komi. She was only able to return to Poland when the ‘thaw’ in the USSR took hold. The photograph depicts two unidentified women, Helena Krycka’s colleagues, perhaps co-inmates in one of the camps where she was held? On the back of the photograph is a dedication: ‘In memory of our dear Helena, memories of the far north. Vercia and Marysia 17 III 1955’. Who are Vercia and Marysia? What catches one’s attention is the modest elegance of the two women and their carefully crafted hairstyles. Could it be that the photograph was taken after their release?