FREEDOM AT LAST
A postcard from Agnieszka Bujakowska, deported
with her daughter, Irena (age 11) and son, Jan (age 14), on Apr. 13,
1940 from Wielkie Koniuszany (Distr. Lida, Voiv. Nowogrodek) to the
Chelyabinsk Oblast (Russian SFSR) in the Urals, informing her husband, Jan (a teacher, age 40)
deported to the Karelian-Finnish SSR, about the release of Polish
citizens by the Soviets and the formation of the Polish Army.
Late Summer, 1941
Written by the daughter, Irena, on purpose - child's handwriting was
meant to entice the Soviet censor's attention away from the contents
of the postcard.
•
"SAD MOMENTS"
With the father leaving to join the Polish Army,
and mother in a hospital, the Langner children (Elzbieta, Boguslaw and
Bogumila) are left on their own in the Voroshilov Colony near Christoforov
in the Kirghiz SSR.
Feb. 26, 1942
The Langners, a typical family of Polish Eastern Borderland settlers, were
deported on Feb. 10, 1940 from Bemowo (Com. Radziwillow,
Distr. Dubno, Voiv. Wolyn). Fortunately for them, the Soviets did not
know that the father, Jozef Langner, was awarded the Order of Virtuti
Militari as a gunner in the Polish Army during the Soviet-Polish War
of 1919-1920.
•
Present Arms !
Early Spring, 1942
•
BACK IN THE SADDLE
Polish military identity card (Nr 1138) issued
to a former deportee, Marian Korycki at the Polish Army Organizational
Centre in the Uzbek SSR. He is now Cpl. Marian Korycki, Polish Army.
Printed in Polish, English and Russian, the document bears the stamp
of the ever-present NKVD - a constant reminder that its owner is still
in Soviet Russia.
Guzar, Aug. 5, 1942
•
PRESCRIPTION
Severny, Oct. 4, 1942
•
Thanks for the Teheran, Franklin !
Works fine for me, buddy !
- FROM STALIN WITH LOVE
Many thousands of young Polish deportees were
branded with Soviet citizenship, forced into Soviet or quasi-Polish
military garb and treated like ordinary Soviet cannon fodder.
This postcard from a young Pole, Tadeusz Beuch, had to be addressed
in Cyrillic alphabet, bears Soviet postage stamp as well as Soviet
military censor and Soviet postal cancellation stamps. The addressee,
Halina Witkowska, lived in Czortkow (Voiv. Tarnopol) - part of Poland
occupied already by the Soviets and, in the spirit of the Teheran
agreements, considered by them to be a part of the Soviet Russia.
Sep. 24, 1944
•
GRAVES... GRAVES... GRAVES EVERYWHERE...
Stanislaw Golebiowski, a Polish deportee, at
the grave of his mother, Wanda in the Pavlodar (Kazakh SSR) cemetery.
Here rests the body
of Golebiowska Wanda
died 10.II.43
Pavlodar, Early Spring, 1946
|
|
GRAPES OF HOPE
Wearing remnants of their Polish clothing, which
miraculously survived the shortcomings and harshness of the existence
in Soviet Russia, Maria and Marian Rosinski, deported with their son,
Zbigniew from Ostrog (Voiv. Wolyn) to Kagan (Bukhara Obl.) in the Uzbek
SSR, celebrate their release from the Soviet oppression with a cluster
of local grapes.
Oct. 25, 1941
•
LIGHT AT THE END
OF THE TUNNEL
Hand-written Newssheet No. 1, distributed by
the Polish Embassy Delegation in Syktyvkar (Komi ASSR).
Syktyvkar, Mar. 20, 1942
•
SOVIET CITIZENS...?
VAGRANTS...? BEGGARS...?
Passport photographs.
Lednya, Spring, 1942
•
THOSE STUBBORN, UNGRATEFUL POLES - THEY STILL
REFUSE THE PRIVILAGE OF SOVIET CITIZENSHIP
Certificate, issued to a Polish deportee
Stanislawa Parfinska from the Voiv. of Wolyn by the Commander of the
Polish Army Garrison in Vrevska in the Uzbek SSR, states that her
nationality and citizenship are Polish.
An annotation states also that she received an amnesty certificate No.
178/71, issued on Sep. 15, 1941 by the NKVD of the Arkhangelsk Oblast.
Vrevska, Aug. 12, 1942
•
THE NKVD NEVER GIVES UP
Page 1 of Gen. Wladyslaw Anders' nine-page
Instructions for the intelligence and counterintelligence sections
of the Polish Army in the East.
Among others, some guidelines are provided for dealing with the
NKVD infiltrators, planted in the Army upon its leaving the Soviet
Russia - if the circumstances justify an immediate and decisive
action, these sections are authorized to "liquidate" the "cases"
without following the standard procedures.
Interestingly, the Instructions mention also British attempts to
infiltrate the Polish Army in the East, and provide guidelines for
dealing with that problem too.
Iraq, Oct. 11, 1942
After leaving Soviet Russia, the Polish Army under Gen. Anders had
to tolerate the NKVD infiltration no longer and dealt with the known
NKVD agents and communist agitators (most of them prewar Polish
citizens) promptly. But the NKVD-sponsored activities continued and,
as the Army was in preparations for entering the theatre of military
operations, it could not afford the NKVD's or any communist further
interference.
In most cases, the identified NKVD agents and communist agitators
spent the balance of the war in the military prisons in the Near East.
Some "cases", however, were "liquidated" in accordance with the
Instructions (one such case described in detail in Kultura -
no. 7/598-8/599, Paris 1997). DURA LEX, SED LEX
•
WHEN THE CENSOR FAILS HIS DUTY TO THE STATE...
Czeslaw Mojsiewicz
Jul. 4, 1945
•
CIGARETTE CASE THAT SAYS IT ALL
The Rising Sun of Freedom and a westbound train
rushing full steam ahead towards Poland's White Eagle while turning
its "rear" at the Soviet Red Star - the symbolism of the carving on the
lid of this handmade, wooden cigarette case is unmistakable.
The owner, a former Polish deportee was not only lucky enough to survive
until 1945 - he also belonged to that small fraction of the survivors
who, against all odds, managed to return to Poland - whatever she was
under the Soviet occupation.
|
|
SOVIET BUREAUCRACY - WORKING HARD, WITH REFINED
ARTISTIC TASTE
"Employment" certificate from Yaminsky Dairy-Meat
Sovkhoz No. 176 (Eltsovsky Raj., Biysk Obl.) in Altaysky Kray, issued to
a Polish deportee, Helena Klein from Bialystok - typed on a piece of
wallpaper.
Nov. 28, 1941
The extent of slavery in Soviet Russia is best reflected in a Russian,
sarcastic and not amusing at all, joke about the Soviet society being
divided into three categories: those, who were in prison, those, who
are in prison and those, who will be in prison.
But, although millions of prisoners worked the northern forests, the
Soviet authorities were suffering from constant shortage of paper, needed
for... processing more prisoners. Out of despair, they became innovative -
they made the records on sheets of wallpaper, stripped from the walls of
houses and residences, owned by Russian aristocracy and bourgeoisie before
the Bolshevik Revolution.
•
PAGES OF PATRIOTISM, HOPE AND... FEMININE PRIDE
Diaries of Helena Pierzchalska (page shown -
Mar. 25, 1942 at Dzhalal-Abad entry with the text of the Polish Soldier's
Oath). Her trust in Poland's freedom coming soon and dedication to that
cause are overwhelming. She also strongly believed, that Polish women
in exile were not just a civilian burden for the Polish authorities
and advocated for military service for them. She was instrumental in
the formation of several military transport companies within the 2 Polish
Corps in Italy, "manned" entirely by Polish women - that allowed hundreds
of Polish men be freed for combat duties. With the rank of a sergeant
she was not only in charge of her subordinates - being almost twice
their age she also played the role of a mother to the young women in
uniform.
•
THOSE STUBBORN, UNGRATEFUL POLES - THEY STILL WANT
TO LIVE THE WHITE EAGLE DREAM, AND HATE THE RED STAR
First Polish School in the Soviet Far North. One
child in the centre holds a large placard with the Polish national emblem
- The White Eagle, with POLAND, MY FATHERLAND written under the
Eagle. The children wear clothing, received from the American Polonia and
- according to the inscription on the back of the photograph - enjoy
finally decent food donated by Polonia. They are accompanied by their
teachers, Alicja Rogalinska and Bronislaw Petryn.
Komi ASSR, May 10, 1942
Children of Polish deportees, particularly those, who lost their parents
and were placed in Soviet orphanages, were subjected to Sovietization.
One of the purposes for the scheme was to create a legion of communist
"apparatchiks" for the postwar "People's" Poland (Wojciech Jaruzelski,
a Soviet-created, devout communist, and top level "apparatchik", is one
of the best examples of the effectiveness of the scheme).
Polish teachers (also deportees), like Alicja Rogalinska and Bronislaw
Patryn, quite often without formal teaching qualifications and teaching
experience, were the only defence against the Sovietization.
•
LUCKY BEGGARS
Released members of the Polish prewar Bar - a
judge and an attorney, deported by the Soviets in 1940 and brought down
to the level of an average Soviet citizen after just a few months of
"resocialization by work".
Unlike many of their colleagues, murdered by the Soviets in the Spring of
1940 (Katyn Massacre) they survived the "touch" od Soviet justice.
Teheran, 1942
•
THE MOST PRECIOUS PIECE OF PAPER - POLISH PASSPORT
Polish passport, issued to
Stanislawa Parfinska by the Delegation of Poland in Teheran.
Teheran, Jan. 23, 1943
•
LAST OPPORTUNITY... OR, MAY BE NOT
Certificate No. 1/1977, issued by the NKVD to a
Polish deportee, Z. Zwirzynski, states that he remained in the NKVD
Control-Filtration Camp No. 0310 in Voroshilovgrad (Ukrainian SSR) from
Feb. 11, 1945 to Jul. 6, 1945, and now is being released to leave for
Lwow, his place of permanent residence. He is supplied with a train
ticket and five-day rations of food.
Signed: Mjr. Starichenko, NKVD.
Voroshilovgrad, Jul. 7, 1945
|
|
FREEDOM
BY ASSOCIATION
A handmade, wooden cigarette case - most precious
of the few meagre earthly possessions of a Russian - prisoner in the
Soviet gold mines of Kolyma. He gave it to a Polish fellow-prisoner,
his "comrade-at-misery", upon the Pole's release from the "gulag" -
I'll rot in this dump for the rest of my lousy existence, and I hope
it won't take long. But you are a Free Man going back to a Free World.
This cigarette case is like a part of me - I'm begging you, take it with
you! To the Free World!
And so the Pole had done.
December, 1941
•
THE MOST PRECIOUS PIECE OF PAPER - POLISH
PASSPORT
The lower half of a Polish passport, issued to
Eleonora Zieniewicz by the Polish Embassy Delegation in the Kazakh SSR.
Chimkent, Mar. 26, 1942
The one page document, printed on a surprisingly good quality,
watermarked paper in Polish, French and Russian, was valid on the Soviet
territory exclusively. The upper portion, with the owner's name and
photograph, retained by the NKVD upon her departure from the USSR.
•
Grade 6 (in the Soviet system junior high school)
annual report card, issued to Wiktoria Brajczewska, a former Polish deportee,
by the People's Commissariat of Education of the Kazakh SSR.
She, and her family were deported to Severny (Irtyshsky Raj., Pavlodar Obl.)
in the Kazakh SSR.
Severny, Jul. 1, 1942
•
FIRST SMILE
Polish orphans, rescued from Soviet Russia, where
they lost everything they loved - their parents... their siblings... their
extended families... They saved their own lives and now learn again
a difficult skill - how to smile.
Teheran, 1942
•
RATIONS COUPONS
Severny, 1943
•
THOSE STUBBORN, UNGRATEFUL POLES - WHETHER OLD, OR
YOUNG, THEIR ONLY DREAM IS POLAND
Letter from Jadwiga Popiel, Polish Orphanage No. 70
in Zagorsk (Moscow Obl., Russian SFSR) to Stanislaw Guboj in Polish
Orphanage No. 3 in Novy Oskol (Kursk Obl., Russian SFSR).
...Regarding us, it's nice here, we're good students, and in the evenings
we dance and play at will. There is only one thing that we want to go home
as soon, as possible. But this moment comes and pretty soon we'll be in
Poland.
Stasku, I'm not the only one - I have a little sister, who is in grade one
and her name is Gizia, and a little brother, who is in grade two and his name
is Bronus...
Zagorsk, Jan. 29, 1946
|
