Interrupted biographies. Accounts of the deportees from Poland into the USSR, 1940-41

Scientific editing: Ewa Kołodziejska-Fuentes
Publisher: The Centre for Polish-Russian Dialogue and Understanding, KARTA Centre
Edition: First
Publishing date: 2020
Binding : Hardcover
Format: B5
Number of sites: 360
ISBN: 978-83-65979-84-1

Hundreds of thousands of Poles from the Eastern Borderlands were forcibly resettled deep into the USSR in 1940-41. Their dramatic fate is an extremely important chapter in Polish memory.

The book Przerwane biografie. Relacje deportowanych z Polski w głąb Sowietów 1940-41 [Interrupted biographies. Accounts of the deportees from Poland into the USSR 1940-41] contains a selection of source texts written by the deportees themselves – fragments of their correspondence, diaries and memoirs. From these varied personal testimonies emerges a general picture of the history of resettlement in its various stages – from the beginning of the Second World War, through the Sovietization of the Borderlands, four waves of deportations (in February, April, June 1940 and May/June 1941) and the struggle for survival on the "inhuman land", to the departure from the USSR with the Anders’ and Berling’s armies, the return to the homeland and the confrontation with the new reality there.

The materials published in the book, including numerous photographs and pictures, come from the Archives of the East (Archiwum Wschodnie, which has been created by the KARTA Centre since the end of the 1980s), to which they were donated by the deportees themselves or their families.

You can buy the book here.