Walka o przetrwanie. Życie codzienne dzieci polskich w Kazachstanie w latach 1940-1942

Abstrakt

In the years of 1940-1942 the Soviet authorities conducted mass deportations of Polish population from so called „Western Ukraine” and „Western Byelorussia”. Many thousand of Polish children started their lifes in Kazakhstan and wide regions of Norther Russia. They became unguilty victims of the Stalin’s regime and carried the consequences great policy of adults.

During four mass deportation, according to the NKWD data available to scientists, about 320 thousand of Polish citizants were taken away. About 80 thousand went to Kazakhstan. It is very difficult to precise how many children were among those persons. It appears, however, that about 20 thousand Polish children were deported to Kazakhstan.

What did the everyday-life of young Polish in stepp republic look like? Which problems created the Kazakhstan reality? The answer for those questions is very complex. But lots of memoiries allow to state that hard work and permanent dificiency of food determined years of their stay in distant republic. Brutal reality was rich with sufferings and troubles. The tragedy was deeper, because children, according to their nature, were much more endangered by the torments of compulsory existence and Kazakhstan life was much more difficult for them. In fact their life was a permanent fight to survive.