„Na gościnnej ziemi radzieckiej”. Obraz zsyłki ludności polskiej w ZSRR w dokumentach Związku Patriotów Polskich

• Authors: Wojciech Marciniak

Title variants

EN

“On the welcoming Soviet soil”. The image of deportations of Poles in the USSR in the documents of the Union of Polish Patriots

• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The collection of documents of the Union of Polish Patriots in the USSR, kept today in the Central Archives of Modern Records in Warsaw, encompasses over 2,000 volumes. This is a very valuable source of information about the fate of Polish citizens in the Soviet Union in 1943–1946. Established on Joseph Stalin’s initiative, the Union of Polish Patriots pursued various goals, including those relating to politics, propaganda, education and welfare. In addition, the Union was in charge of the repatriation of our compatriots in 1946. Documents of this organisation, especially its local structures, describe the situation of Polish citizens in various regions of the USSR, especially deep in its heartland. The picture emerging from these sources is not uniform. The sources are marked by the context of the time and place in which they were drawn as well as the ideological “programming” of the Union of Polish Patriots. Hence the distorted image of the exiles, described in a way that would please the Kremlin’s masters. However, a layer of propaganda does cover a reliable picture of the life of our compatriots in the Soviet Union at the time. Readers have an opportunity to learn about the dramatic conditions in which the exiles lived and the enormous poverty with which they had to cope.

• Publisher: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wroclawskiego
• Journal: Wrocławskie Studia Wschodnie
• Year: 2013
• Volume: 17
• Pages: 125 - 145

Contributors

author

Wojciech Marciniak

• Uniwersytet Łódzki